Players of Destiny
by Rizzz
Summary: Monkey D. Luffy's simple wish to escape his grandfather's torments led to a hoaxed wedding with a stranger impersonating the bride! Simplicity turns to complexity when beholders of D are involved. Strings of destiny will be pulled along its players and becomes a quest to unravel a simple ploy that turns to complex sinister scheme. Strawhats Crew & Luffy/Nami. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** I'm writing this story in the hopes that I can properly portray the characters of One Piece while in a plot or setting that is vastly different (or maybe not) to the original series. Your feedbacks to the characters and story is very much welcome ^-^

**Disclaimer: **Everything belongs to the talented genius Eiichiro Oda, but I'm proud to say the story belongs to me. **:**D

**Full Summary:** Monkey D. Luffy's simple wish to escape his grandfather's torments led to a hoaxed wedding with a stranger impersonating the bride! In the land of One Piece simplicity turns to complexity when beholders of D are involved. The sham of a wedding shall trigger the pull and tie of the strings of destiny along with its players and becomes a quest to unravel a simple plot that turns to a complex sinister scheme that's bound to stir up the peaceful world of One Piece. Strawhats Crew & Luffy/Nami.

**Genre:** Mystery / Suspense / Humor / Adventure / Romance

**Warning:** English is not my first language so please correct me for any mistakes you see. Thanks!

_Dedicated to an anonymous reviewer, Polar~ Who gave me courage to start this story. _

_Hope you will come across this fic :D _

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**Players of Destiny.**

** Prologue **

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This story takes place in a land where enchanted powers, heavily advanced technology and different kinds of creatures exist. That kind of world shall be known as One Piece.

In this world, there is a thing called the 'Will of D'. A legacy passed down through generations by an ancient civilization that was said to have been obliterated by a deadly force. As of this time, a legend was foretold by prophets that those possessors of the Will shall rise again bearing the name of D and once more shall hold the flow of control in the land.

_"The descendants of D's Will shall possess the power to open a new path where a luminous destiny awaits…"_

_... ..._

... ... ...And this is what the very old, th_e _very much older, or should I just say _ancient_ folks used to say… not that we can ever clarify that because unfortunately, they all have… ahem! Croak.

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**Chapter 01 **

**A Tactic With A Bulletproof Failure**

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Half an hour had already passed since the wedding was set to start,

However…

The exquisite bashful bride -present in every wedding- had yet to make an appearance.

A wave of uneasiness began to settle within the crowds, which were seated on the column of benches.

The wedding was set within a garden overlooking the ocean. The venue was decorated with white lilies and orange blossoms representing innocence and eternal love. The theme of the wedding was the groom's favorite color— red, while the matching color to go with it was chosen due to its flexibility with other colors, and mostly because _this_ is a wedding, so the color of purity— white.

For a big wedding with a lot of invited guests, forty columns of benches were placed and aligned horizontally from each other. A red carpet was neatly laid down the middle.

People began chattering in whispers. Some felt nervous that the chances of the bride arriving at the wedding lessen with each ticking second. While others would steal glances of the groom, who was standing in front beside the wedding marshal, trying to mask the pity they felt with each glance they made.

Different pessimistic emotions were felt by the guests, on the other hand, the person who should be feeling the most distress of all was ecstatic by the whole thing,

That person is none other than Monkey D. Luffy,

The groom of this soon to be disastrous wedding.

Luffy tried his best to wear a dejected expression on his face, burying the happiness he felt inside.

'_Okay, Zoro said I just need to keep thinking of unhappy thoughts to make myself depressed. So unhappy thoughts... ah! Just like the time with the food samples I never got to eat because I arrived too late…'_

That piece of memory did dampen the young male's mood, it helped him think of another disappointing experience.

'_Or that awesome newly developed ride in the amusement park, I wasn't able to try because it was considered too dangerous for the public during its one time "Free Customer Ride at Your Own Risk Test"...'_

The depressing thoughts started to work because the young man truly felt gloomy, thinking about the chances he lost to experience new things.

Unfortunately, the fleeting thought of his grandfather finally giving him some space and privacy when the vice admiral learned that his only grandchild had been left heartbroken by his _'bride' _-who will definitely jilt him in the alter- brought back his joyous mood.

'_No! I need to control myself. I can't let people know I'm happy; I have to keep acting like I'm depressed.'_

Luffy sucked in his lips. He tried his best to keep the smile off his face.

He swiftly glanced at his watch,

'_Yosh! Just a little longer and I can escape this fake wedding! Shishishishi!'_

During his whole life, Luffy came to the conclusion that the vice admiral Garp, which also happened to be his grandfather, made it seemed like his goal in life was to make the young man's existence miserable.

When he was a child, the old man would forcefully take him camping and fishing, then would leave him in a cottage in a forest or worse, up in a mountain. A day or two later his grandfather would nonchalantly waltz back to take him home as if he was gone for merely an hour or two.

When he grew older and reached his teenage years, the guy replaced camping and fishing with military training and activities that he would forcefully drag Luffy into. He had to admit that he enjoyed the fresh experience at first, but the military code and conduct and those annoying _endless_ rules, not to mention his nasty captain and commander, drove him insane. Along with the appropriate punishment that accompanied breaking certain ground rules. Through these experiences, Luffy made up his mind that the strict controlling rules and ranks of military life weren't for him and even his fear of his old man wouldn't change his decision.

And now, at the age of three and twenty, his grandfather found another way to aggravate him by digging into his private _sex_ _life_ and _women_.

First, the old nagger would constantly ask him question like,

_"Oi Luffy, you're hitting twenty, and you're still hanging around a bunch of men. Don't tell me you swing the other way? Bwahahaha!"_

_"Hey brat! You're getting older and the only companions I keep seeing you with are males. Don't tell me you're shy around women? Bwahaha." _

_"Listen Luffy, if you keep this up, your youth's going to pass by you, and you'll end up old and alone."_

_"You stubborn brat! It looks like I need to take things in my own hands because if I leave it to you, I'll bite the dust before I catch a glimpse of my great grandchild. Thinking how the child would miss going on mountain trips and sea adventures with his great granddad or missing to teach the child a few lessons of life make this old man's heart depressed..."_

He then proceeded on setting him up with blind dates, in which Luffy took _quite_ a while in finally understanding the concept, and that it doesn't involve trying to blind his female partners whom he thought were called 'date'.

In Luffy's simplistic logic, he thought 'blind date' was a game, meaning blinding a person named date so came the term 'Blind Date.'

He shuddered when he remembered how badly his ass was kicked by both his grandfather and his friend Sanji, even his other friend Usopp, who usually joined his antics, lectured him at how horrible things could have turned out, and it was a good thing no one was hurt, except for the building he destroyed.

The only good thing in the whole experience was he learned what blind date was, and thus, preventing him from making the same mistake. The vice admiral also stopped bothering him for some time.

Until... Came that _long_ miserable night...

Even now, recalling that incident still send shivers up his spine.

After hanging out with the guys he came home in the middle of the night and found a girl –courtesy of his grandfather- in his bed! She was also naked he belatedly only realized much later that night...

Of course, the marines would come to investigate the incident of a naked woman thrown out of a glass window when it was reported to them. Afterwards, he was charged with kidnapping and rape that were immediately dismissed when his grandfather came and explained the whole situation and promised to pay for all the medical fees and emotional trauma the girl suffered.

Garp and Sanji, who heard what happened, gave him another good beating after that and even now, he was still miffed about it.

It wasn't his fault the first thing that came over his mind when he saw the woman was that she was a thief who broke into his home with the intention of stealing his food -he remembered reading a book about it, _Goldi & The Bears_ was it?-, his natural instinct was to get her out of the house, and the nearest exit was the window... near his bed.

Anyway to avoid a similar scenario from happening again 'Operation: Fabricating a Tale _by Usopp the great! _-the italic part was strike out from the name- came to plan with the helped of both his long-time friends, Zoro and Usopp. The latter was posing as his best man.

Zoro suggested that he would leave such honor to Usopp,

'_If I'm going to be in this fake wedding for quite a while, then I rather do it sitting than standing up. I'll even get to nap while I sit.' _The older guy thought when he was telling Usopp to be Luffy's best man.

Zoro's _kind_ gesture had brought the younger man to tears and promised Zoro that he will do his best for the role, almost forgetting that the whole wedding was a bogus and was never meant to happen **_if_** only 'Operation: Fabricating a Tale' had done the outcome they were expecting.

The day they had put the operation to work, Usopp had _coincidentally_ met his grandfather and _accidentally_ revealed how Luffy was planning to get married with his long-time lover in secret, saying his grandson kept his relationship hidden because he didn't want to bother and worry the old man. Of course, the whole thing was a lie, which was the reason Usopp became the perfect man for the job, after all, the guy was a master at the art of deception.

After the revelation to his grandfather, the three men seriously thought the vice admiral was going to back off Luffy's private life rather than arranged a grand wedding!

'_So the plan got changed a little…'_

The operation was now called 'The Coolest Secret Mission Ever: Mystery Fiancée', Luffy came up with the name on this one.

'_At least the results would still be the same, there's really no bride so the wedding will be canceled, and maybe granpa would stay off my business for a while. Shishishi!'_ Luffy beamed at the idea.

"Psst! Luffy! Stop grinning you moron! Act like how a groom is supposed to act in situations like this!" Usopp, who was standing near him, spoke the reminder in a low voice that could only be heard by the groom.

'_Oh right! I need to act like a groom who is about to get jilted by his bride.'_ He pouted, slanting his lips downward, which ended up looking like a puppy refused to be given a treat.

"You're a horrible actor. You looked like a beggar who wasn't given any food than a man who is about to get his heart shred to pieces." Usopp muttered in defeat. His comment received him a glare from Luffy.

"Well acting depress is really hard when I don't have something to be depress about!" Luffy retorted.

"I guess…" Usopp looked at him in a thinking manner. He stroked his hand under his chin.

"Even though you looked like a person who didn't get his favorite treat, at least you looked pathetic. The guest could still interpret it as a sign of agony in your part." He continued as an afterthought.

Luffy smiled in gratitude to the little comfort in Usopp's words, and then he quickly changed his expression to that of a dejected one.

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The Mystery Bride...

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Monkey D. Garp was inside the manor, waiting for the arrival of the bride since he volunteered to be the person who will lead the girl through the aisle and deliver her to the groom.

Garp learned that Luffy's wife to be was an orphan, which was the reason the girl had refused to meet with him until the day of the wedding. Usopp stated that Luffy's fiancée was terrified that the infamous vice admiral would reject the girl right on her face upon meeting each other, and he would object to the marriage of a mere orphan to his grandson.

The old man tried to argue, but Luffy was very adamant in respecting his fiancée's request. It made the _only_ option available was to meet her during the day of the wedding itself, because by then, it would be too late and disgraceful to cancel the marriage.

"Hmph! Does that brat think I was born yesterday_?_!" The old man grumbled in a loud voice, as he rethought the incredulous circumstances behind this wedding.

"What the fuck are you grumbling about now old man_?_?" A voice of a child commented beside him.

"Hey watch your mouth little girl, that's not any way a child should talk!" Garp gave the child with a flowing pink hair a light punched in the head, an act of discipline for her bad behavior.

"Did you just punch me old geezer_?_? I'm already twenty five! I can say whatever the hell I want!" The child with an upper cheek piercing below her right amethyst eye bellowed. She was mad that the old man dared to lay a hand on her.

Garp narrowed his eyes and punched the girl with all his might,

"You might be old in age Bonney, but whether you transform into a child or your original adult form, in the end, I'm still your elder. So show some respect!"

The adult woman, which was currently transformed into a child, lifted her tiny hands to gently massage the sore spot on her head, and at the same time she glared at the old man in defiance.

A rustling of leaves was heard outside, and both looked up with expectation evident on their face. As they further examined the scenery, they learned that the noise was caused by the breeze that blew towards the manor.

"Hmph! What was I expecting when I knew this whole wedding was a sham to begin with. No matter how long we stand here and wait, a bride will never arrive!" Garp complained while ungracefully plucking a booger out of his nose with the used of his pinky finger.

"Wha~~t?_?_! Are you saying a marriage is not happening_?_! No joyous wife and a husband? What about the reception_?_? And the unlimited access to a buffet of food_?_? Oh hell! That's the only reason I agreed to be the flower girl in this damn marriage!_!_!" Jewelry Bonney screeched in outrage, receiving another fistful from Garp.

"Didn't I already told you that such words shouldn't be coming from the mouth of a child!" He yelled in a scolding tone, similar to the way he used to discipline Luffy.

"Besides how can a nonexistent bride become a wife!" The vice admiral muttered in annoyance.

"How sure are you on this anyway? Do you have any proof?" Bonney asked, being civil for once.

"Geh! I don't need any evidence! I'm quite sure it's fake! That grandson of mine can't even look at me in the eye every time his fiancée is the subject of our discussion! And another thing, what kind of a name is Nami huh_?_?_!_!" Garp wore an unbelieving expression, his eyes lazily slanting to the side as he let out another grunt.

"Nami? That's the bride's name? I think I heard from somewhere that it means the wave of an ocean." The girl scrunched her face in concentration, digging inside her brain for information.

The vice admiral snorted in reply,

"That's not what I meant! That _name_! It's so obvious that the boy probably got the fake name of his imaginary lover from his favorite restaurant! I remember that the name of the place is… 'Sanji's Hub ~ Plaisir Mina' (Sanji's Hub ~ A Delight to Everyone)." The old man was so sure that his simple-minded grandson interchanged the two syllables of the last word of the restaurant to come up with a name for his fiancée (Mina = Nami).

"Ahhh… No wonder the name felt so familiar. Now it makes sense." Luffy's caretaker when he was a child butted into the conversation.

"Dadan! What are you doing in here?" Garp turned to the over-weight woman, whom came walking towards them.

Dadan was the woman who was forced to take care of Luffy by Garp when he was a child. The old man stated that he would turn a blind eye to whatever business the woman was running as long as she took in his grandchild.

"I'm checking for any signs of the bride. The guests are becoming uneasy in there…" Dadan replied, a hint of nervousness was present in her tone.

The older woman took out a cigarette and began to smoke it to calm her rigid nerves.

"You mean you believe this sham? From someone in your _line_ of work, I thought you were smarter than that." Garp looked at the underground traffic agent with skepticism.

"I-I don't know what you're getting at, but I'm that idiot's mother! Therefore, even if the whole world doesn't believe him, I will stand by his side. So if Luffy says there's a girl he plans on marrying, then it is nothing but the truth!" She declared boldly -a courage she only seemed to possess when it concerns Luffy- so unlike her usual cowardly nature.

"Bwahahaha! Looks like the boy is doing you some good. You've gotten gutsy since I last saw you! I knew I've done right when I left Luffy in your care." Garp stated proudly.

"Wh-what? You don't know how much trouble you've given me by leaving that moron in my hands! And I'm still annoyed by it!" Dadan countered defensively, trying to hide the motherly affection she felt for Luffy that had developed over the years of looking after him.

"S-so you really think the bride won't show up?" She continued, changing the subject of conversation.

"Hmph! I can smell the fakeness of the whole event ever since that friend of his mentioned the secret marriage thing! That's the reason I pushed through this event. I wanted to see how much that grandson of mine can endure the pressure before he breaks and is force to tell the whole truth!" Garp was back to picking in his nose.

'_Although, I'll admit it is admirable he stuck out to this lie until the end. And now that I think about it, maybe I should have hired a detective to uncover the truth because that would have been much_**_ less-expensive…'_**He comprehended, a sweat drop forming on his head.

"Anyhow, I swear if a bride doesn't show up within a couple of minutes. I, myself, am going to cancel this marriage and drag that boy to military! That would teach him some manners to never mess with your elders. Bwahahaha!" The old man brightened from his foul mood when he found a reason to bring back his grandson in his field of work.

He was too focused in his little fantasy that he failed to notice the petite figure standing behind him, until, the person tapped his right shoulder softly,

The vice admiral turned to face the person. His eyes met the almond irises of a tangerine headed woman.

"Erm... I'm terribly sorry for being late. I'm sure _he_ must be very worried, and you must be his esteemed grandfather. It's nice to meet you sir." The girl placed a cute smile on her face, it was a gesture to charm the old man and get on his good side.

Garp cocked his eyebrow in puzzlement,

"Excuse my rudeness young lady… but who are you?"

The lady in question only beamed at his inquiry.

"Y-y-you! Is it not obvious?_?_!" Dadan stuttered. She struggled to decipher whether the young woman standing before them wasn't a hallucination.

"Wha_?_? That can't be! This—_oohh~~_"

'_That brat even hired an actress! Is he really going to take it this far? Does he think I just plan on giving up on this whole thing when everything starts to get serious? Hmph! We'll see, the moment that boy mutters a word of objection I'm going to give him a lifetime punishment he deserves!' _

"Bwhahahaha! Well, it seems that things had just gotten interesting!" Garp stated, a mischievous glint present in his eyes.

"Great! Now we can get this damn thing over with and continue to the reception!" An excited Bonney cheered.

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An Almost Ruined Wedding Saved By A Belle.

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"Psst! Usopp, I'm starting to get bored. Can't I go yet?" Luffy ran out of energy of trying to stop himself from being happy. He now had lost interest in the whole thing and was fidgeting in his spot.

Although, his restless movement did help his circumstances since the crowd thought it was due to the grooms growing anxiety due to his missing bride.

"What the hell are you saying you idiot_?_! Do you think this is some kind of game we could just run away from_?_? If this whole scheme gets discovered, we are all going to die by your grandfather's fist!" Usopp hissed in a whisper.

Luffy shuddered at the thought. He sighed loudly in disappointment and replied.

"Okay, I understand…"

"But it doesn't change the fact that this is really boring! We should have thought of a more exciting plan. Who's stupid idea was it to do this?" the groom complained again.

Usopp started at him in disbelief,

"It's _you_ and _your_ grandfather's _stupid_ idea!"

He referred to Luffy's mystery fiancée ploy and to the crazy wedding his grandfather concocted.

"Now sshhh! People might hear you!" A vein already popped on his forehead with his teeth similar to an edge of a saw. Usopp had to use all his self-control because it would be one hell of a scandalous sight if the best man beats up the groom on his wedding day. He settled in taking several deep breaths.

The two young men noticed the posing marshal Sengoku eying them in skepticism. He opened his mouth to say something, but thought against it. He settled in muttering something beneath his breath, which was something along the lines of…

..._Garp's problem, I don't care what happens anymore…_

Luffy heard shuffling of clothing brushing against each other.

Then Brook -a famous musician commissioned by his grandfather to which Brook willingly accepted the offer due to a _favor,_ he owed the vice admiral- started playing the wedding theme.

'_Eh? What's happening? Why is the wedding music being played?'_

Luffy became confused, and he noted that Zoro was wide awake from his slumber, his friend appeared to be gawking, fixated on something at the back of the garden.

Next was Usopp, who had grown quiet and was sweating profusely, his complexion had turned white as a sheet with his eyes bulging out of his eye socket. His jaw fell all the way to the floor.

Luffy had grown very curious to what his two friends were able to see. He took a step closer to the aile and tried to catch a glimpse at the back portion of the aisle.

He noticed that everyone had faced the back of the garden and Bonney, currently in her child's form, was skipping on the red carpet. She threw the flower petals in a lively and careless manner.

He could tell that Bonney's action of scattering petals on the ground wasn't what caught everyone's attention because their eyesight was beyond her.

So he waited...

It wasn't long before he, himself, witnessed what everyone was fussing about.

Monkey D. Garp, his grandfather, was leading some unknown girl wearing a beautiful white gown on the red carpet.

'_Eh?'_

_'... ... ...'_

Luffy was very puzzled by what he saw. He could feel his instincts rise and alarmed him that this was something about to create an obscured impact on his life.

"Hey Usopp! What the heck is **that**?" Luffy asked his friend in a desperate manner. He had an inkling idea for the purpose of the lady in long-silky-fluffy-ivory gown. He just absolutely refused to acknowledge it.

The best man, finally getting over his initial shock, replied,

"I-I-I... I don't know..." Usopp stammered. He tried to find another logical explanation than the one he came up with upon laying eyes on the girl who was currently walking side by side with the vice admiral, and try as he might, he couldn't come up with another viable reason for her presence.

"But..." the young man pause to gulp, postponing the words he was about to utter.

"I think _that_ is supposed to be your _bride?— _Luffy." He continued. He was having a hard time understanding the situation.

"I see... so that's a bride." Luffy calmed down a bit. He was glad to find an answer for his question.

It took his brain quite a bit to process the meaning of this new-found information.

_'... ... Ugh_!_! EEEHHH_?_?_?_!_!_!' _

When the full realization hit him, Luffy's entire demeanor copied the state of his best man a few moments ago. Several sweat beads slid down on his face. His irises disappeared in the whiteness of his eyes and his jaw hanged in a bewildered state. His complexion paled similar to a ghost.

The wedding, although, a quarter an hour late from the set time, began with the set schedule.

The gloomy atmosphere had vanished and in its place was the joyous air that was often found in weddings.

Different festive emotions were felt by the guests now that the bride had arrived. On the other hand, the person who should be feeling the most ecstatic felt his whole world crashing down,

That person is none other than Monkey D. Luffy,

The groom of this soon to be disastrou- -scratch that- soon to be _prosperous_ wedding.

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**TBC**

**Thank you so much for reading! **

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**A/N:** I would love to read everyone's opinion on this :D

Next up is the marriage and reception... or is it? That is if Luffy doesn't try to stop the wedding and Bonney ends up trying to kill him, but not before Garp gets to him first! Or maybe his mystery missus will try to defend him?

Which would be the most likely scenario? :3


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Hello! And enjoy reading~

**The cast outfits if anyone is curious: **

Someone kindly suggested that I describe everyone outfit and I tried, but I'm sorry I horribly failed (I'm just not good with clothings) (TT_TT) so rather than include it in the story and ruin your reading mood I'm just going to do it here.

For the men just think of their Strong World outfit where they were wearing -mafia outfit- tuxedos (didn't watch it? click the links on my profile and it will directly show the pictures, one from Strong World and another I found where the SHs are wearing formal clothing) and for Nami (Thriller Bark arc or another pic I found where she is wearing a beautiful light gown).

For the Maid of Honor, a maroon dress with a spaghetti strap and a red lace is encircled in the abdomen which gave the dress a shape. The long lace was tied into a ribbon on the upper back. The ends of the lace reached down to the edge of the dress which was up to the knees. And orange blossom flower was elegantly pined on cloth on her right chest. She is also wearing a black high heeled sandals.

For Bonney, a red tube gown with a strip of cloth on each side used to tie it on the back of her neck. The gown was tight on the chest part while it flow freely starting below the chest down to the knee. Flowers were sewn on the helm of the gown. Her black shoes were flat and she wore black tight fitting socks that run up to her thigh.

Dandan, (for people who don't know/remember her, there's also a pic. in my profile) I think she would prefer to wear a long sleeve white shirt with a gray and white strip vest on the top of the shirt. She still wore her long pink beaded necklace as an accessory. She also would be wearing a black fitting pants and black boots to go with it.

Garp and Sengoku are also wearing tuxedo for this occasion, the only difference is Sengoku has a white piece of cloth draped around his shoulders as a representation that he is the wedding marshal.

**Setting: **AU but most of the cast will have similar relationships just like in OP.

**Warning:** Since this is a One Piece wedding, it might not follow the usual stuff.

**~OoooO~**

**Players of Destiny**

_To these lovely people: Yasaonna-Chan, layfon-lintence, Awsme Grl,Shadowonthewall6, Akrim, Polar, __Dark Leg Sanji, _dbzgtfan2004. 

_Thank you so much for reading and the encouragement for this story xD_

**~OoooO~ **

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**Chapter 02**

**The Marriage Between Two Strangers**

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The ceremony began.

An hour remains before the sun sets in the western sky, the soft clashing of the wave from the sea could be heard together with the gentle and comforting wind blowing through the garden.

Everyone were already seated in their respective places and were listening intently –except for a few individuals- to the wedding marshal.

The few individuals involved Zoro and Usopp, who were trying to figure out the identity of the tangerine headed girl standing beside their best friend.

Included in the list of these individuals were Garp – quietly observing his grandchild -, Bonney – the girl's brain had settled in fantasizing the coming buffet -, Brook – the famous musician who was bending the upper half of his body one hundred eighty degrees, trying to catch a glimpse of the Maid of Honor's panty - and Kaya – the Maid of Honor, who was currently sending her Butler a puzzled expression when the guy had suddenly smacked Brook on the head -.

Another person part of these individuals was the groom.

Luffy's brain had ceased to function the moment he laid eyes on the bride. His first thought was to escape the venue, but Usopp's tight gripped on his left arm held him in placed.

Now, he stood in front of Sengoku with a dazed look on his eyes. His jaw was still hanging from his mouth. The guest assumed this weird behavior came from a man stunned upon laying eyes on the beauty of his bride, unfortunately, the reason was different in this young man's case.

_'Why_?_?'_

_'I don't understand…'_

_'I know I can be stupid but! This situation doesn't make sense!_!_!'_

_'What is this girl doing_?_?'_

_'Why is she wearing a white dress and standing beside me_?_?'_

_'Why_?_!_!_'_

_'Why is Sengoku doing his speeches like there's an _**_actual wedding_**_?_?_?'_ Luffy's mind yelled in despair.

He lifted his hands and pinched each side of his cheek, stretching it for a few inches before letting go.

The skin snapped back in place, creating a tiny red spot and leaving a stinging sensation on his skin.

His action earned him peculiar glances from both the bride and the wedding marshal.

Sengoku – who was standing on the platform made of beige marble — narrowed his eyes on the couple before him,

Ever since the ceremony had started, the girl, whose name he recalled as Nami, had worn a serene expression on her lovely face even though her groom had looked like he wanted to dash towards the nearest exit upon seeing her. On the other hand, Garp's grandson settled in a bewildered state when the boy realized it was too late for flight.

_'It's obvious something is wrong with this couple, but nobody even cares!' _He repressed a sigh, noticing that he had paused from his speech, he cleared his throat and continued.

Luffy rubbed the sore spot on his skin.

_'That hurt a little, at least I know this isn't a nightmare… …which is _**worse**_!_!_'_

Luffy had been in other people's wedding, he never felt the need to cry during those occasions, but this wedding made him want to shed fountain of tears.

_'Did someone set this up as a joke? If that's what this is, it's not funny!'_ He pouted at the thought, and then his eyes grew in realization.

_'Wait! Did granpa set this up_?_?'_ Luffy lifted his sight to the direction of his grandfather, who sat on the first row of benches.

_'But why would he? If he found out about our plan, I'm sure he would have hit me unconscious and dragged me off somewhere rather than send someone to be my bride…'_

_'Hmmm...'_ He scrunched his face in concentration, not caring to listen to the proceeding of his own wedding.

_'Well if neither me nor grandpa set this up... then...'_

_'WHO THE HELL IS SHE?_?_?' _he thought, growing more baffled by the situation.

Luffy sneaked a peek to the girl beside him. She appeared to be calm and poised like the whole thing was perfectly normal for her, which made him frown in annoyance.

_'Why is she so calm? A normal person wouldn't be this relax in situations like this! Either she's a robot, which would be so cool!_!_! Or she's crazy!'_

His head was starting to ache from all the thinking and decided to act according to what he understood.

_'That's it! I don't care what happens! There's no way I'm getting married today and to someone I don't even know!'_

And as if on cue, Sengoku's words rang through his ears,

"If there is anyone who objects to this union, speak now-"

"I have something to say!_!_!" Luffy raised his hand, his voice loud and clear, wearing a resolute expression.

Several gasp were heard from the guest, even Nami turned and made eye contact with him for the first time, but Luffy didn't care. He was glad though, to know that _his_ bride finally acknowledged his presence, and that she wasn't a robot because her almond irises sparkled with life.

_'This can only mean that she _**_is_**_ crazy!_!_!'_

Sengoku looked at him, letting out a sigh he was holding back,

"Yes, Luffy?"

"I don't—"

His words were muffled by a pair of hand that covered his mouth; it belonged to his best friend Usopp.

"Luffy! I know you're confused and that you don't want to go through this, but if you object now in a few seconds this whole place will turn into a blood bath, and in case you don't know, that blood will belong to you!" Usopp desperately whispered in Luffy's ear.

The young man with a unique feature, which was his long nose, cautiously glanced to the vice admiral and some of the distinguished people invited by Luffy's grandfather. Even though it was a wedding, they chose to wear their military uniform together with their medals pined to the front of their clothes. The overall impact made them look more intimidating than they already are.

_'Ugh! They all look _**_really_**_ strong! This is not a good time to piss his grandfather nor any of those men. They all looked like they have grown impatient with all the waiting earlier.' _A lump grew in his throat when he felt the power that radiated through these people.

Luffy stared back at his friend in defiance,

"I don camph! I don wamph togem marimph!"

Usopp interpreted Luffy's incoherent words with: I don't care! I don't want to get married!

He cocked his head to the side and gave Zoro a pleading look, asking the older guy to help him changed Luffy's mind.

From his seat, Zoro sighed and raised his head to scan the crowd. He attempted to gauge each person's reaction. He didn't see Garp's expression since the old man and he were both sitting on first row of benches, him on the right side and Garp on the left side. Although, he did notice Bonney in the far left corner clutching Brook's boned neck as the man trying his best to make the girl release him to no avail. And with the way she was holding it, only a short time left before she breaks the bone in his neck.

His measured gaze finally landed on the bride, his placid expression hardened.

_'Who is this witch disguising herself like some holy maiden in a matrimony.'_

Zoro glanced back to Luffy and Usopp. He stood up and briskly strode towards the two,

He clamped a hand on Luffy's left shoulder in a friendly manner,

"Heh! I'm sure the groom just wanted to remind everyone that they will answer to his fist if they voiced a word of objection." He said lightly, trying to fill the gap of silence and at the same time dismissing the tension within the crowd.

Dadan followed suit and let out an unlady like laughter, murmuring and trying to convince everyone how it was like Luffy to do such a thing.

Both Zoro and Dadan's action began to work its magic for the guest seemed to relax.

Zoro leaned into Luffy in a low tone,

"Luffy, if you object to this marriage right now, I'm sure it will cause a big ruckus for your family and everyone here. Something about that doesn't sit well with me, to make everyone suffer just because of one witch." Zoro glared at Nami.

"But Zoro—"

"I know." The older man gave Luffy an encouraging smirk.

"If there weren't any other option available I would have help you bolt right out of here, but for now, just get on with this and later enjoy the different food and alcohol in the reception."

The mention of food made Luffy's mouth water. He just remembered that he hadn't eaten anything since he started standing in the garden as the groom.

"And then after all that just get this thing secretly annul and it would seem like this whole mess never happen." Zoro wore a smug look on his face after he had explained his plan.

"Before you know it you'll be back to bachelorhood and by then Usopp and me would have found out who she is and planned a way to pay her back because it wouldn't be right if we don't." Zoro cast another dark glance on the bride's way, which Nami failed to notice or purposely ignored because her eyes never left the groom.

Luffy considered what Zoro had said, it was a good plan.

Still, he didn't like the idea that he had to get married and more annoyingly, the bride was a stranger.

"Luffy, go on, I'm interested to hear what you would like to say. You don't what?" Garp's voice interrupted his mulling.

He glanced towards his grandfather and upon seeing the expression on Garp's face, any doubt on his mind vanished as the traumatic memories of his childhood flashed through his mind.

"Ugh! I don't..." He couldn't stop himself from gulping.

"I don't want anyone interrupting! It's just as Zoro said." He gazed at the sky, suddenly finding it interesting, several drops of sweat formed on his forehead.

Unnoticeable to everyone -except one person- the bride's stiff shoulder visibly relaxed, and her eyes left Luffy to stare at the ocean ahead.

"... ... ..." Sengoku meticulously observed the young woman.

_'Here I thought the girl had masked her emotions perfectly, seems like Luffy's earlier declaration had shaken her up a little." _

Garp stared at his grandson with a steel gaze,

Usopp and Zoro could feel a touched of nervousness due to the prolonged silence of the bulky old man. A few grave moments passed. The quietness was broken when a loud laughter stretched within the garden.

"Bwahahaha! Is that all?"

The blast of chortle that came from Garp made the two released the breath they were holding back.

"Bwahahaha! ... For a second I thought you were planning on canceling the marriage." A dangerous gleam was found in the senior vice-admirals dark eyes, making the three young men flinch.

_'Ugh!' _

"But I guess I was wrong. Oi! Sengoku continue on with the ceremony." Garp merrily said to his long-time friend. his throat,

"Then let me repeat, if there is anyone who objects to this union; please speak now or forever hold your silence."

The posing wedding marshal scanned the crowd for further disruption, fortunately, not a single soul made a noise. Usopp and Zoro who left their sit earlier, went back.

"Since no one speaks then we shall start the three symbolic acts of binding two souls to become one."

"May the Best Man and Maid of Honor take the Nectar of the Deity and deliver it to the bride and groom."

Usopp and Kaya walked up to a small man-made fountain fish pond. The base was shaped like a heart, and the sides were decorated by a pile of rock columns -different sizes of rocks piled up one after another to create a column -, orange blossom petals were intricately dropped on the side of the rock column. In the bottom of the fountain and underneath the flowing water was a bed of smooth oval stones.

The fountain was near the platform.

Three circular objects levitate in the center of it. One of the objects was made from an ivory while the second one was made of silver, and the last one was similar to a pillow and connected in the right and left side of the silk covered pillow was a slim gold rope advisedly laid on top of it.

Four tiny dragon-like fish, which luminous the color of yellow, blue and white swam in the sparkling sea green liquid.

On the ivory object, a pair of glass sea shells was placed. Usopp picked it up and gave one to Kaya. The two of them filled the shells with liquid that was falling in circular motions to the base of the fountain.

When the sea shells were full, they went to the couple and gave the beverage to them.

Nami drank her share quietly.

"Is this some kind of alcohol?" Luffy asked, examining the lime colored liquid.

"Hm? No, it's not. At least, it doesn't smell like one when we went over to the fountain." Usopp, who was standing beside Luffy, answered him.

"It's originally water. The Fruit Dragonet gave it color and flavor, which is the reason they put it in there to swim." Nami spoke softly as she sipped the liquid.

"Eh? Sugoi!" Luffy said, amazed by what he learned.

He only caught on after seconds passed that the girl spoke to him for the first time.

He snapped his head to the side and warily eyed her,

"Oi! So you can talk! Hey, tell me now! Who—"

"Ahem!" Sengoku coughed loudly. The marshal pointed to his drink, reminding him of the task at hand.

"Oh right!" He drank the liquid in one gulp and handed the glass to Usopp, who placed it back on the fountain together with Kaya.

_'I'll interrogate you later.' _Luffy made a silent promised to himself, glancing back at the girl who was definitely not mute as he first concluded.

"By means of this Nectar, your body and soul shall be cleansed. It will offer both of you a sense of tranquility as you travel across the new road ahead together." Sengoku recited the words like some kind of charm.

"May the godparents, please come up front and knot the thread of fate on the ring finger of the bride and groom."

Garp and Dadan stood up from their sit and headed to the small fountain.

On the silver piece was a rainbow-colored thread weaved through the different hairs of thirty six animals. Garp picked it up and took one of the tips while he gave the other end to Dadan. The two walked towards the couple, Garp on Luffy's right side while Dadan was on Nami's left side. They hold onto the youngster's left hands and tied the Thread of Fate to their ring finger.

Luffy shuddered a little of Garp's tight gripped on his hand together with the piercing gazed the old man was sending him.

_'Ugh! He is smiling _**_and_**_ glaring at me, which is so much creepier!'_ Luffy cringed and looked away from his grandfather.

After the task was done, both the godparents went back to their sits.

"Whoa! Neat!" Luffy exclaimed, turning his hand over and under to see the changes in the color of the thread as the light from the languidly setting sun shined on it.

A smile was present in Nami's lips and her eyes gleamed with delight, fascinated by this one-of-a-kind thread that was only made and used on weddings.

_'It's so beautiful. I've known and read this kind of thread on books, but this is the first time I've seen one.' _

"By means of this thread, may both your fates be intertwined for a life time." Sengoku chanted the words like a spell.

"May the Ring Bearer, please present the rings to the bride and groom for their vows."

A golden human sized bird-like creature -the head was a duck, but its body was a peacock- flew over the garden and landed on the fountain rock column.

_'Eh? He's here too? Why?'_ Nami stared at the bird in surprise and worry.

"Biri!" Luffy chuckled in amusement when he saw the bird that he recently met and became friends with a few days ago.

"Biri_?_?" Nami blurted out the question before she could stop herself. She promptly realized her mistake and looked the other way when Luffy turned his head to look at her.

"Yup! Biri because—" Luffy was cut off by the sound of Electricity being produce.

…Biri Biri…Biri...

The gold bird had spread his tail feathers in a shape of a fan and was producing electricity.

"Because of that!" Luffy continued and turned back to admire the performance Biri was executing.

The Fruit Dragonet started to glow in their natural color: yellow, blue and white.

The small piece of the rainbow-colored thread that remained in the silver plate gradually untangled, and each strand of hair joined the circulating water in the fountain, making the sea green liquid radiate a rainbow light.

Luffy and Nami stole a glance at the thread knotted on their fingers. Both were baffled when they felt a heart beat coming from it.

In the white silk fabric of the pillow laid two strips of gold that were two inches in length. Biri focused his electricity on the yellow metal, heating and melting it. In return the thing began to change its form; from horizontal gold strips, it took the shape of a small halo object.

After Biri was done with his task, the glowing water from the fountain covered the rings, cooling it in the process. When the liquid evaporated into a thin air, it left behind two simple pure yellow gold rings.

In the inner side of the larger ring, the star symbol for male beside the four letters —K I N G— together with the phrase **'** M D. Luffy x M D. Nami **'** was engraved on it.

While on the other ring, the star sign for female next to the five alphabets —Q. U E E N— followed by **'** M D. Nami x M D. Luffy **'** was imprinted.

Biri used his beak to pick up the gold rope, which hung to the side of the pillow. Taking the circular cushion with him, he marched in the direction of the couple.

Another feature of the rings was that a tiny tangerine fruit with a strawhat snugly placed on top of it was carved on the outside, right on the center of the golden band.

Sengoku cleared his throat and continued,

"Now I ask of you, Luffy and you, Nami to face each other and take the other's hand."

The wedding marshal observed that the poker face of the bride had cracked when a glimmer of panic and worry crossed her eyes for a mere moment. The serene mask was again present when she turned to her groom.

Luffy took this opportunity to examine his bride as he held her hand in his. He noticed that her fingers were cold beneath the light silk fabric of her gloves. She was also trying to minimize the contact between them, but he firmly grabbed hold of her hand in a stubborn gesture.

A look of annoyance sparked in her eyes, trying her best to intimidate the groom by her piercing stare. Her effort was futile because Luffy disregarded it and continued inspecting her.

"Ahem! I know you two would love to ogle each other all day long and don't worry, you both will have the time of the world to do that once this wedding is over." Sengoku spoke in a sarcastic joking manner to break the tension between the pair.

"What_?_!" Luffy and Nami gasped the word, both were startled by the otherworldly comment and brought their attention back to the wedding marshal.

"Now that I have both your attentions, let us continue."

"Luffy, take the smaller ring."

The raven head grabbed the ring off the pillow and curiously examined it. He then looked back at the tangerine head in front of him when he heard Sengoku spoke,

"Luffy, will you take Nami as your wife? Will you cherish her love, loyalty, trust and friendship for now and forever? Will you be with her through happiness and sadness, in health and in sickness as long as you both shall live?"

"... ..."

Luffy stayed silent with a neutral expression on his face.

Someone from the guest cough, the person's intention was unknown for whether he did it because he was having troubles with his throat, or he was trying to fill in the stiff muteness that settled in the area of the garden.

_'Boy, how difficult does uttering the word "I do" can be that you need time to answer_?_? Why the hell do Monkey Clan always makes things so complicated!' _Sengoku cursed.

Now that Luffy had taken a good look at the woman, he found her appearance was not unpleasant. If he was going to be blunt, he had met a lot of women through his travels and in his opinion, she was at least above average. That didn't matter to him because the thing he found himself taking an interest in was her eyes that was fearlessly staring directly at him.

He didn't know if it was because she lacked guilt or conscience, or she was simply brave, no matter what the reason, he respected the spirit that burned within her eyes.

There was also his gut senses telling him... _This was going to be fun~~._

His mind and heart jumped with glee at the thought. His decision made. Therefore, he would not regret it.

Luffy had only been silent for a few seconds. However, for Nami, it felt like an eternity. Who wouldn't? When the groom refused to answer the question representing the main point of this ceremony.

_'Does this person think I enjoy crashing into this wedding and pretending to be the bride! If it weren't for _**_his _**_request, I wouldn't have done—'_

"Yeah."

Nami paused thinking she misheard the word.

She saw the groom nod his head to the wedding marshal, and felt the hardened smooth surface of the metal ring as he slipped it on her ring finger. The two simple, and yet, significant gestures from the groom affirmed that she had heard right.

Even though Luffy's answer wasn't the formal one, Sengoku was willing to take _any_ form of affirmation from the young man just to finish this taxing ceremony.

_'Good thing Luffy's an only child because this is the last time I'm marrying any persons related to this family.'_

"Nami, take the other ring."

She carefully took the remaining ring from the circular pillow.

"Nami, will you take Luffy as your husband? Will you cherish his love, loyalty, trust and friendship for now and forever? Will you be with him through happiness and sadness, in health and in sickness as long as you both shall live?"

"… …" Nami intentionally delayed her answer as revenged for Luffy's long silence earlier.

Sengoku right eye twitched. He badly wanted to yell at how much this whole task was aggravating him. He was sure more wrinkles and white hairs would appear after this.

Luffy appeared unconcerned. His only reaction was to blink his eyes and continued to gaze into her with eyes similar with an innocent boy. This made her uncomfortable, realizing that she had postponed her response long enough, she answered,

"Sure."

She then slipped the golden band on his ring finger.

Again, it wasn't the formal reply, and he didn't care. Sengoku was glad he could end all this.

"The groom may now kiss the bride."

An intake of breath could be heard from the bride, drowned by Luffy's continuous coughing as if something got stuck in his throat.

Both the youngster was staring at Sengoku with incredulous expression; the couple seemed to think that the marshal was joking.

"Oi! I thought we only needed to do three acts until this whole thing is over! And I counted, we did three!" Luffy complained in a stubborn manner.

"... ... ... You don't say..." Sengoku replied with a deadpan face.

_'Kissing someone isn't really considered as some kind of grand ritual compared to what happened earlier. But I guess explaining that wouldn't get through a Monkey's stubborn head.'_

"My mistake, I meant _four_! Now, the _groom_ may_ kiss_ the _bride_." Sengoku's patience was thinning as he stared down at Luffy, stressing the words he had spoken earlier that _now_ sounded like an order. A formidable dark aura hovered behind him.

"Com 'on Luffy, don't be shy! We are all grown up here. We all know you two are going to do a _lot_ more tonight! Bwahahaha!" Garp remarked from his seat.

Bonney was bellowing for the couple to kiss, complaining that she's already hungry.

"Hell yeah! Just give her a big smooch then we can all get out of here! Hurry it up! My stomachs complaining!"

Different forms of laughter and chuckles burst from the guest.

Kaya was blushing from her spot, thinking of the implication of Garp's word.

Brook was suffering from a nosebleed, "A passionate night between a man and a woman is just too much for my frail heart... I wonder if the wedding videos would include that portion, it would be a terrific souvenir for the guest!"

Usopp and Zoro were trying to feel sorry for their friend and were having trouble projecting it. The only feeling they could exhibit at the moment was amusement. After all, this is the first time they saw Luffy growing panic and was sweating due to one simple kiss.

As for Nami, she had gotten over her initial shock.

_'This was a wedding so of course it was only natural for the bride and the groom to kiss.'_

_'I can't believe it slipped my mind, and I thought this whole task would be simple.' _she suppressed a sigh from her lips.

Nami stared back at Luffy. He was obviously confused in what he should do.

_'I guess it's up to me.'_

She got it all figured out. She will pull Luffy in her direction and tap her lips on the skin near his mouth. She would use her veil to cover the act and making it seemed like they kiss.

Nami took a step closer to Luffy and grabbed his blazer to pull him towards her. However, she didn't anticipate Luffy's startled cry and him defying her pull by pushing his body backward. The force took her with it. She found it hard to balance her body with a wedding dress on so she couldn't stop herself from stumbling over the groom.

"Hey! What are you—" Luffy was cut off when he saw the girl tripped towards him, the last thing he saw was her panic expression before their faces collided against each other.

The impact made him fell to the ground taking Nami with him.

Sengoku impassively watched the couple fell to the side of the platform, seeing both their faces connect. He lifted his face to the crowd and stated in a monotone voice the phrase that would end this event.

"And with the kiss sealing your fate, I pronounced you husband and wife."

He glanced through slanted eyes to the couple sprawled on the ground and like an after thought, the marshal ad-libbed,

"... And may you both have a promising future."

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**TBC**

**I'm sorry if the chapter was kinda lame, I was really not in the mood to write, still I got through it right? And I'll keep trying my best. ^-^**

**So suggestions, positive/negative criticism are always welcome :) **

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**Next: **Confrontation, giant swan, food, wines, dances, pink tuxedo, accidental kiss and one outrage (pervert)cook :3


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** The reviews were all cool, it gave me inspiration to write so here's the 3rd chapter :3

**OP Manga Ch620:** Shipping Mode On: Did anyone notice Luffy nonchalantly taking Nami's tea and drinking it? And Nami not minding his action? lol! It reminded me of a couple sharing food and drinks with each other without any need for permission. It felt like the bond between these two had developed once again (because I can't see Nami freely sharing her snacks to Luffy 2 years ago without hitting him or making him pay for it) and Oda is so awesome to be able to pull that off without adding any awkward romance in it ^-^

Shipping Mode Off: Yup! I know it probably doesn't mean anything and I'm probably overreacting for being a LuNa fan, but it's the first bit of LuNa moment for a **_while_** now. So I could at least used this tiny moment to have a blissful dream. XD

Anyway enjoy reading~

**~OoooO~**

**Players of Destiny**

**~OoooO~**

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**Chapter 03 **

**The Start of the Dinner Party **

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In a twin moon shaped island, where a majority of the land was made up of either explored or unfathomed forest, a union between two individuals began.

Everyone was gathered outside the manor, happy wishes and congratulations were greeted and said to the bride and groom's way.

After the embarrassing event of laying sprawled across the ground with their lips (unfavorably?) pressed against each other, the pair didn't have the time to mull over what happened because as soon as the ceremony ended they were ushered to the open space in front of the manor where their ride was waiting for them in order to transport the couple to the other side of the island where the reception will take place.

The transportation was in a form of a giant swan. Half the sized of a sea king. It was wearing a pink collar, and a golden bell attached to the center of it. A raccoon that was wearing a black necktie and a hat similar to that of a chauffeur was sitting on the middle portion of the swan`s beautiful long neck, the small animal was tasked to be the driver and guide the swan to their destination.

Nami admired the sight before her, this was the first time she had ever seen something like this and the idea of riding it was delightful.

"Wow! That's so awesome!" Luffy gazed over the enormous exquisite creature before him. His raven eyes were wide and gleaming with excitement.

His adoration was interrupted when a hand clamped down on his right shoulder. He turned his head to find Zoro next to him.

"Listen Luffy, while you both are traveling to the reception area you can use this chance and interrogate the woman. Ask the witch who she is and what her motives are." His voice was quiet as he spoke of the advice, careful not to let the other guest hear.

All traces of fun vanished from the groom's face, thinking of his bride, or should it be 'wife' now?

"Yeah. Got it. I'll make her talk and ask her what's going on here." He nodded to his friend, his expression serious.

Zoro was about to brief him on how he should maneuver the interrogation when his dark-haired friend was suddenly snatched back by none other than his grandfather.

"Oi Luffy! What are you doing chatting there with your friend, when you and Nami should be getting on Mini-chan over there!" Garp using his right arm dangled Luffy before him while he scolded him.

"Let me go gramps! Eh? Mini-chan?" Luffy questioned, his face puzzled.

"Ah that's right, I haven't told you about Mini-chan yet." He sets his grandson on the ground.

Garp grinned and pointed his right thumb behind him where the white creature stood. His voice proud he when he answered his grandson's question,

"I picked up that white swan a few years ago and named her Teeny Mini. I thought it suited her perfectly."

_'EEEHHH?_?_?_!_!_!_ Teeny Mini_?_? That humongous thing_?_?'_

Nami, Zoro, Dadan and other nearby people who heard thought the same thing, while some of the marines working closely with Garp remained neutral, already used to his... uniqueness.

Luffy came closer to the animal,

"Shishishi! So your name is Teeny—"

Mini-chan interrupted him by saying, "Mini~"

_'Wha? It can even talk_?_?_!_'_ The guests gaped at the creature. They were all baffled when they heard it utter a word.

"Eh? Mini?" Luffy questioned.

And the swan replied, "Teeny."

Luffy eyes lit with joy like a young child,

"Ah! Shishishi! Mini!"

The creature answered, "Teeny."

The crowd could only gawk back and forth to the two's exchanged of words.

Luffy chuckled at his new-found discovery, "Tee~ny!"

And the animal uttered back, "Mi~ni!"

The raven-haired man faced his grandfather once more, a wide beam present on his face,

"Shishishi! You're right. It is a good name for her!"

"Bwahahaha! Of course, it's the perfect name!"

_'How is it perfect_?_? Just because the only two words it can say are Teeny and Mini_?_?'_ Everyone was having a hard time to grasp the logic of naming something or someone who was opposite of its characteristic.

_'And how the hell does a giant creature know how to speak words opposite of its size?_?_!'_ The crowd accusingly stared at the humongous swan.

"It cannot be denied, you two are definitely related." Zoro commented on the sidelines with a sweat drop present on his head.

"Well that's enough introduction of Mini-chan. Luffy get on already. I'm sure the guests are hungry and would like to eat some food—"

Luffy's brain clicked at the mention of food, and his mouth began to water,

"FOOD!_!_! Why didn't you say so?" Luffy stretched his hand and encircled his arm on the swan's long neck and jumped over its back.

"Mimi-chan let's go!" The young man pumped his fist upward, his eyes taking the form of a meat while his tongue hung down from his mouth.

"LUFFY YOU FOOLISH BRAT!" He heard his grandfather bellowed from below.

Garp had his fist raised in the air and tightly clenched; a vein popped on his forehead.

Sengoku stood on the left corner of the crowd, a tired expression on his face.

_'Maybe I should have also added; best of luck.'_ Referring to the time he wished the couple a promising future.

"Eh?" Luffy turned his face to his grandfather, thoughts of food could easily be read on his face.

"You gluttonous brat_!_!" The old man accused.

"How could you forget about your _young beautiful wife_?_?_!" Garp yelled pointing a finger to the tangerine headed lady on his left. His teeth were sharp like a saw while he reprimanded his grandson.

The gathered crowds were either staring at the sky whistling or finding something interesting on the ground, trying to avoid looking at the pitiful bride.

Dadan even tried chatting to the person beside her to cover up for the awkward situation.

Zoro, however, found the scene didn't really care for the feelings of an imposter.

Nami was fuming on the side, for a woman it was embarrassing to be regarded as someone far inferior to food.

There was also the matter of her stinging pride, she knew she wasn't one of the gorgeous women out there, but at least she considered her face and body above average!

_'Do I look plain to him that he considers me lower than food? Because I'm sure, he's not like those beggars on the road who didn't eat for days to be so enticed by the mere thought of something to eat!' _

"Oh right!" Luffy shot his hand to Nami's direction and encircled it on her waist, and then he snapped his arm back and placed her beside him.

The moment he lowered her on the feathered back of Mini-chan, Nami lifted her fist and punched his face as hard as she could.

"Idiot!" She hissed under her breath.

"Hey! What was that for?" Luffy stared at her, a pout present on his face.

Seriously, why did the girl hit him? Although it didn't hurt, still he didn't do anything that would give her the right to hit him.

"Shut up! You deserve it!" She heatedly replied.

She noticed that her punch seemed useless on the guy and came to a realization,

_'Hmph! Figures, he's rubber after all!'_

"What did I do?" He complained at her unjust reply.

"That's enough Luffy, keep that attitude up, and you might not get any ahem tonight." The vice admiral told him, a creepy weird twinkle resided on his eyes.

"Haah?" Luffy was perplexed,

_'Why does he keep mentioning the night? Is something supposed to happen tonight?'_ He was growing more puzzled, no matter how much he plowed his brain. He can't remember anything he planned on doing tonight. Maybe his grandfather was losing a few screws in the head?

When he came back to reality, he noticed that they were already in the air.

The raccoon was driving Mini-chan and they were flying across the ocean to get to their destination.

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The Seaweed Horse

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Usopp came back from the shore after he was done arranging their transportation.

"Oi Zoro, we're ready to go."

The young man looked from left to right as they walk towards the beach, he was being cautious not to let the others hear their conversation.

"So did you manage to pass Luffy the Den Den Mushi?"

"Ugh!" Zoro halted, his hand going into the pocket on his vest to take out a purple hand sized snail with a detachable shell used to talk and communicate with other people.

"Why the hell are you still carrying that?_!_! Didn't I tell you to give that to Luffy, so we can guide him into asking the girl?" Usopp smacked him on the shoulder for his blunder.

"I was going to give it to him, but his grandfather suddenly dragged him away so I didn't get that chance to pass it on to him." '_And then there was that giant swan and then the witch ended up being embarrassed and then... I forgot…'_ Zoro thought to himself, staring hard on the snail making the small animal uncomfortable.

"Oh I see. I guess it can't be helped if his grandfather interfered when you were talking to Luffy." The long-nosed man said, knowing how difficult it was to go around the vice admiral.

"But I reminded Luffy what to do, it should be okay." Zoro continued, putting back the Den Den Mushi into his pocket and conceded on walking.

"Ah! So you told Luffy of the couple of things he should ask, like how did she knew about the wedding or the fake bride. After all she did impersonate the bride, so she must know there wasn't one to begin with." He speculated, his shoes stepping on the white sand of the beach.

_… Listen Luffy, while you two are traveling to the reception area. You can use this chance and interrogate that woman. Ask the witch who she is and what her motives are…_ Zoro recalled the few lines he told his friend a while ago.

"Hmmm…"

"What with that response_?_? It's not convincing!"

The two arrived at the port where multiple ships and Sea Kings were docked on the shore line. The beach was covered with white sand and banana trees were growing to each side of it. Small shells and tiny red crabs would sometime be picking out from the sand.

Some people had already left, and it was noticeable that Bonney's vessel was ahead of everyone, after all the young girl immediately ran off to the beach as soon as the ceremony ended. She was followed by the musician Brook, who took off after hearing a buffet with a variety of foods was waiting for them.

The two men neared a small long wooden ship; with a figure head similar to a sheep. The railing was painted red and the top sail, which is the large piece of clothing attached to the mast, was in a stripe color of gray and white. On the center of the top sail is a logo of a lamb. The ship was designed and made by Kaya's Butler.

"Welcome back Usopp and Zoro-san!" Kaya said as she stood on the deck.

When he boarded the ship, Zoro noticed two giant seaweed plants tied on the right and left railing of the ship.

"Hm? What's that?" he asked.

"Those things are the ones that will be pulling us to the opposite shore of this island." Usopp answered as he tied a string to an apple.

Zoro examined the dark-green plant that was drifting in a motionless manner in the water.

"Looks useless, are you sure it can take us there within a couple of minutes?" He frankly stated what was on his mind.

"It's not useless, just wait and see!" Usopp replied indignantly with a vein throbbing on his forehead. He was a little insulted that the guy thought his plants were useless.

He took out a fish pole and wrapped the string where the apple was tied around the pole. When the task was done he dangled it ahead of the plants. In a quick motion, green eyes and a mouth pop out of the seemingly lifeless seaweed and chased after the apple at an amazing speed.

Zoro comically stared wide-eyed at the plants, his jaw hanging. After getting over his initial shock he leaned back on the railing.

"What the? They remind me of horses." The man muttered beneath his breath.

"See now, they're not as useless as you first though." Usopp grinned, feeling proud of his... pets?

He shrugged in reply, but his grunt could be taken as affirmation.

Usopp began to look around, "I think I forgot to take the reserve apple from my pack inside the cabin, I might need it in case these guys managed to snatch the current bait."

Zoro sighed and offered his hand, "Here, I'll hold it for you."

The young man halted his action and gave the older man _the_ look, the type of look that said 'he was being irrational for offering to help' look,

"Are you **insane**? After I almost died last time, there's no way I'm letting you navigate _any_ ride while I'm on it!_!_" He snapped at his friend, his temper flaring when he recalled the time they went fishing.

_It was a fine day. It wasn't too hot nor overly cold. The temperature was just right and because of that he unconsciously dozed off, which led to Zoro navigating the boat, when the older man woke up to find a small storm nearing them._

_When Usopp awakened, rather than a cool sea breeze greeting him, he was stunned to see the fierce desert before him. Having no idea where they were or how the hell they -specifically Zoro- managed to get there by using only a boat, the two ended up being stuck in that place for a week with just a minimal water and two medium-sized fish they caught earlier that day with them. _

_It was only because of his trained eyes due to being a skilled marksman that he spotted a traveling merchant from afar and with that, they got saved. He later found out the mystery of their travel from the sea to the dessert. It seemed that when Zoro tried to remove their boat from the storm's path, he, whose profession was a swordsman, used one of his swordsmanship skills to produce a tornado to carry the boat and dodged the storm, however, the force he used was too strong, and they ended flying all the way to a nearby dessert island…_

_… _

"Hey I was only trying to save our asses from a storm!" The swordsman defended.

"Well it's your loss. I'll be taking a nap, wake me up when we get there." He continued and sat down on the wooden board with his back leaned on the railing.

"Good! I would rather have you sleeping than getting ideas in your head that you have the capacity to navigate anything."

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Confrontation

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Unwavering jet black irises closely observed the narrowed almond eyes of a woman.

Luffy settled comfortably on the back of the large swan. His neck was currently stretched to bring his face mere inches away from the girl, while his body sat crossed leg across Nami, who was in kneeling position, her back straight and stiff with the curve of her butt placed on top of her feet.

An awkward silence hung in the air, although Luffy failed to acknowledge it as he continued to stare at the orange head before him.

"Could you back away a little?" Nami questioned, but it sounded more of an order when she said it. She was not happy that her personal space had been invaded for the past couple of minutes.

Luffy snapped his head back to his body, "Then answer my question, who exactly are you?"

"I'm Nami, your girlfriend, fiancée, bride and now your wife." She answered calmly.

"Did you forget it already?" She put on a hurt expression.

"Now we both know that is not true!" He placed both his hands on each knee as he stretched his head to the girl, trying to make her confess with his fixed gaze.

"Nami doesn't exist. She is someone both Usopp and me made up. I even got her name from Sanji's restaurant. So tell me, why you're pretending to be someone you're not." For the first time in his life, Luffy really tried thinking hard. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember ever meeting this girl. Was she someone who held a grudge against him? Is that the reason she's doing this? Or… could it be?

"Wait a sec! Are you one of those imaginary friends or something, where if you pretend they exist, they really do come to life_?_!" He was looking at her up and down, his eyes sparkling like a child.

"… …"

Another pregnant silence passed between them.

Nami wasn't sure if this person was fooling with her or the guy just honestly asked her about being an imaginary friend, and she had an inkling feeling it was the latter when she felt an excited aura emitting from him.

This guy really had a talent for pushing her buttons because she could feel the last ounce of her patience fading away.

"First of all, imaginary friends don't exist and—" she hardened her expression when she saw the deflated look on his face. She grabbed his hand and placed it on her beating heart.

"Stop treating me like I'm some kind of thing because I'm a real-live woman!" She had enough of this guy! She first planned on seducing him and wrapping him around her fingers thus making her job easier. However, in the past hour she had been together with him made her realized a couple of things, that the guy named Monkey D. Luffy is an idiotic glutton who prioritized food to the point that he forgot she existed, and now he was leveling her whole being to that of a child's imagination!

...And more than anything, she hated being treated like someone who's not a human being.

Cold and arrogant eyes flashed in her mind while insanely belligerent laugh resonated through her ears.

"I am, so stop lying and answer me honestly on who you are." Luffy's clear voice broke her disturbing thoughts, his hand warm and surprisingly soothing on the place where her heart dwells.

He looked serious, not a hint of childish excitement or playfulness on his face.

A small voice in her head told her that her anger was misplaced on this young man and compared to what he did; she had no right to be angry because she was now invading his life without his permission. Her guilty conscience caused her anger to deflate.

"Okay I'll answer you truthfully Luffy." She said his name for the first time.

"My real name is Nami, which is quite a coincidence that you thought of a similar name for your bride."

She continued her explanation when the man before her remained silent,

"And I'm here to stay, if you ask me for how long? I honestly don't know."

She gripped her knees and matched Luffy's steady gazed with her own determined stare.

The raven haired mulled over what she said,

So the woman's name is also Nami, and that she intends to stay indefinitely until she, herself knows when she could leave… in short she revealed nothing of her motives and the reason she was pretending to be his bride.

"Is there something more you can tell me?" He tried to gain more information.

"If it helps, I don't plan on doing any harm on you." She replied, trying to ease his mind.

_'Oh that's nice to know, but I can easily stop you if you do attack me for real.'_ He thought.

The meaningless explanation was starting to aggravate him. He wanted to beat her up just to force some useful information out of her. This was his life she was messing with! Nevertheless, every time his eyes landed on her the strength on his arms and hands will fade, and he would realize that he only wanted direct answers that she wasn't willing to give. He didn't really intend to inflict any form of harm on her.

_'Why is that anyway?' _Before, when a woman annoyed or pissed him off, he had no qualms on punching that person.

His head was starting to hurt again and to make it worse he heard the growling of his stomach asking to be fed.

Now both his head and stomach were aching.

"Okay, let's both have a truce for now. I'm really hungry, and I don't want to think anymore. My head is already hurting." Luffy's shoulder slumped, forgetting that his right hand was still on Nami's chest, the said hand slid down a few inches and ended up on her cleavage.

"Hey! What are you doing_?_?" She reflexively punched him, her fist getting buried in his rubber face.

Luffy used both his hands and grabbed her wrist, pulling his face off of the orange head's fist.

When he finally managed to pull himself off, he voiced his complain,

"What was that for? Why do you keep punching me?"

"You were trying to grab my breast!"

"I was not! Besides you were the one who put my hand in there."

"Shut up! I put your hand on my chest not on my breast idiot!"

"Hmph! Forget it, your punches don't even hurt me." He pouted and looked away.

He then used his pinky to pluck out the booger from his nose.

Nami gritted her teeth; this man was again testing her patience. She breathed in and out to calm herself.

She lifted her left hand and stretched it towards the man in front of her.

"I'm in for that truce you were saying earlier." Nami sincerely smiled, glad to postpone from answering any questions.

Luffy, who was still busy picking his nose used his free hand, which was his left to shake the bright head's outstretched hand.

While they were shaking hands in a temporary agreement to form a truce, the light from the setting sun caught their attention.

The mixture of red, orange and yellow illuminated from the sky and sea as the sun slowly disappeared from the horizon.

The night replaced the day the moment the sun vanished. The moon and stars were visible against the navy sky. The lights coming from the reception area was now in plain sight because of the darkness.

The reception was set up in an open landscape not far from the shore. Round tables covered in beige linen cloth with an elegant flower vase in the center were placed in the upper portion of the landscape. A bar was set up on the right side of the tables where an array of drinks was available upon the guest request. In line with the bar and was placed in the middle of the landscaped was the buffet table where an assortment of sea foods, cooked meat and desserts were arranged.

On the opposite side of the tables was a built-in dance floor where a band was currently playing a tune. The whole area were surrounded by ivory stone pillars and lamps were decorated around each pillar, which were used as the source of light in the area

When they arrived, a person wearing a pink tuxedo with ruffles at the end of his long-sleeved coat and instead of a neck tie, the person wore a big fuchsia ribbon on his collar, came and greeted them.

"Strawhat-chan! My heart would like to give the most sincere congratulations to my friend who just got married!" The person shook his hand vigorously while his left foot was raised up in the air.

"Bon-chan! What are you doing here?" Luffy asked, a smile plastered across his face.

"Didn't you know Starwhat-chan? I shall be your host this evening, and I promised to do my job the way only an okama can do~~" His left foot still raised, he also lifted both his hands above his head –which was a pose similar to a ballerina- and continuously spun around.

He then took note of the girl beside his friend.

"Oh my! Is this your missus?"

"Eh? Miso Soup_?_? Nah... This is not a Miso Soup this is Nami." Luffy stepped aside to show her to Bon Kurei.

Nami let the comment slide. She smiled brightly to greet his friend.

The okama didn't pay heed to Luffy's introduction as he examined the bride, as if making up his mind, he spun towards her,

"It's so nice to meet you Boob-chan!" He decided that the most notable part of her appearance was her boobs, so he chose it as her nickname, but he did not expect the girl performing an uppercut on him for choosing a nickname that was supposed to be a form of praised for having big breast. At least, he didn't choose breast-chan because he thought boob-chan was rather cute, not that it made any difference to the enraged woman before him.

After flying about the sky and landing ungracefully on the ground with a thud, Bon-chan quickly stand up and voiced his complain to the orange head,

"Boob-chan that was so mean of you, why?"

"Stop calling me that or I swear I'll beat you up until you do!" Nami retorted, her anger flaring.

"Then what shall I call you Boo—" He stopped short when he saw the girl narrowed her eyes on him.

"You can just call me Nami!"

"Eh~? But that's so plain! I think Boob-chan is more creative." He saw Nami getting ready to punch him again, and her action made him thought of another cute name that will suit her.

"Then how about Fist-chan?"

"Eh_?_? Fist?" Nami repeated, caught off-guard by the nickname.

"Shishishi! I think it suits you." Luffy chuckled. He really did think it suited her since she always used her fist when she was expressing her anger.

Nami sighed. She wasn't really in the mood to argue with a nickname, especially with stubborn people.

"As long as you don't ever call me Boob-chan, I guess it's fine."

"Then it's nice to meet you Fist-can. My name is Bentham, but I prefer you call me Bon Kurei or Bon-chan rather than that awful dull name. I'm a dear friend of Strawhat-chan and your host for this evening." Bon-chan spun a couple of times in front of her before bowing to present himself.

The night breeze blew past them, and Luffy smelled the aroma of food coming from buffet table.

"I can smell food!" Luffy's mouth immediately watered with his tongue dangling out of his lips.

"Some people are already there, follow me Strawhat-chan and Fist-chan."

Bon-chan led them to a set of staircase leading to the open landscape where the party was being held.

Due to his hunger, Luffy was impatient to climb the stairs, so he grabbed both Bon-chan and Nami on their waist and hauled them upward with him much to the two's dismay.

While the three were talking, more people arrived and also headed for the celebration

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The Reception Area

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As soon as Luffy got to the reception, he immediately rushed to the buffet table and grabbed several pieces of meat.

However, before he can taste any of the delicacy Bon-chan stops him by slapping his hand off the food,

"Strawhat-chan, stop joking around~~! You can't eat yet!"

"And WHY THE HELL NOT_?_?" Luffy couldn't help, but yell. He felt outraged by his friend's offending action.

"Because the bride and groom must first offer a dance as a symbol of the couple belonging to each other, and... so that the guests will be allowed to dance later after you two begin dancing."

"Eh? I don't care if the guests dance first. I'm hungry, so I'll dance later when I'm full." He resumed picking up his meal.

Bon-chan slapped his hand again, "Stop joking around~~! You and Fist-chan need to dance first! It's a tradition and while I'm the host, I can't let such a beautiful tradition be ruined just because Strawhat-chan is being impatient!"

"What? Geez! Why is this wedding so troublesome! The other parties I attended, people left me alone to eat."

Luffy sighed, since Bon-chan was the host he probably knew what was best for the party so the fastest way he can satisfy his stomach was by following him.

He quickly grabbed and dragged Nami to the dance floor.

As soon as they were there, Nami lifted her hand for Luffy to take, but she was puzzled when he moved away from her.

Luffy started to dance the only way he knew how too and that was by placing a chopstick in each hole of his nose and tucking the other ends on the gum in his mouth. He then bended his knees a little and started to shake his body from left to right.

Nami out of shock due to his actions could only stand there and gawked at him.

Normally, she would probably be entertained by what he was doing, however, this event wasn't considered one of those normal occasions.

So she could only think of one thing,

_'_**_What is he doing_?_?_**_'_ Her appalled thought.

After he thought they -or rather he, it wasn't his fault if she wasn't moving at least he was dancing- had danced long enough he dragged her back to the buffet table.

Nami was still too shocked to protest and Bon-chan was also in a similar condition when the couple got back.

He again picked up the food he left, and just as he was about to take his first bite of the meat, his face was smacked down to the meal in front of him.

He lifted his face off the meat and slowly faced his assailant,

He was very annoyed, why did people keep on interrupting his meals!

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DO—" Luffy started coughing, choking on nothing but air when he saw the face of his attacker.

The vice admiral was standing before him, a raging aura surrounded the old man, and his fist had once again connected to the skin covering the skull of his grandson.

"YOU BRAT_!_! ARE YOU PURPOSELY MAKING ME ANGRY_?_? What kind of stunt are you pulling on the dance floor_?_?" Garp bellowed.

"Ouch! Quit punching me! Bon-chan told me to dance so I dance!"

The okama snapped out of his dazed when he heard his name mentioned,

"Stop joking around~~! I told you to dance and-and... I didn't know what you did!" He hid his face in both his hands.

"You call that a dance? Maybe next time I'll throw your ass to Kamabakka Kingdom and let those okama teach you how to properly dance!" Garp threatened.

Bon-chan, who was still acting melodramatic to the side, abruptly halted then like an afterthought he said, "But I do find the movements entertaining and refreshing. You should teach me those movement sometimes." The okama turned and was now fully facing Luffy.

The raven head returned his request with excitement, "Shishishishi! I know! Me and Usopp invented it! Cool right?"

"Then when Strawhat-chan is free later, maybe we could start the lesson-"

"Gya!"

"Ugh!"

The vice admiral punched the pair on the head almost making their eyeballs pop out of their eye socket from the force he used. His patience reached its end.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!_!_! It might be entertaining but right now Luffy you're not a clown to... ZZzzzz..."

"... ... ..."

"... ... ..."

"... ... ..."

The three awkwardly stared at the old man who seemed to have fallen asleep with his mouth widening and narrowing as he snored, the youngsters suddenly felt loss in this situation.

"... ..."

They stood there for another second, but Garp wasn't showing any signs of waking up from his slumber.

"Um... Luffy I know you're hungry, but I think it would be a good idea to go back first to the dance floor before your grandfather wakes up and punches you again when he sees you standing here." Nami broke the silence, snapping out of her dazed.

She also wanted to teach him a lesson for his idiocy. However, after seeing him getting hit by his grandfather a couple of times she thought that was probably enough since she didn't want to sit next to a groom who had two black eyes and multiple bumps on his head, which is what would happen if she as well disciplined the guy. Besides, it would be a horrifying sight for the guests to see a bride beating up her groom with a bat or a chair -since she couldn't hurt him by a mere punch- on their wedding day.

"Yes, that would be a wise choice." Sengoku calmly commented from behind them.

The three turned to face the fleet admiral,

She could feel nervousness crept up her spine, which made her stepped closer to Luffy.

"Com`on Luffy, let's head back and offer a proper dance. Okay?" The tangerine head displayed a charming smile, trying to portray an aura of a blissful couple.

She intertwined her hand to his and used all her strength to pull him back to the dance floor.

Luffy let himself be pulled along. He did understand the logic in their words. It was simple. He just needed to be a little patient and dance the way they wanted him too and that would satisfy everyone, which will lead him into finally being able to eat.

_'Yup! Simple.'_ His mind made up. He strode ahead of Nami -who was startled by his sudden enthusiasm- and led the way back to the dance floor.

Sengoku stared at the couple ahead of him then slid his gaze back to his long-time friend, who was snoring loudly,

"If I didn't know you any better, it's hard to believe you're someone who holds the position of a vice admiral."

The snot balloon from the old man's nose burst and with a start, he woke up,

"Huh? Wha? Ah! LUFFY YOU BRAT- Huh? Where is he?" He began looking around, perplexed that his grandchild had gone missing.

"There." The fleet admiral nonchalantly cocked his head towards the couple.

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The First Dance

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"So... What kind of dance does grandpa wants us to do?"

"This kind." She replied.

She faced Luffy to her and placed his left hand on her waist while she kaid her left hand on his right shoulder. Then she lifted their intertwined hands in line with their shoulders.

"Then what?" He asked in a curious manner.

"Just step backward, while I'll step forward and then you'll step forward, and I'll step back and at the same time we sway to the tune of the music." She explained as simple as she can.

"Wait, what?" His mind was confused, which made him unintentionally stepped on her foot.

"Oops! Sorry…" He immediately apologized.

"Ah! Don't worry its okay." She winced from the pain but quickly covered it with a smile.

_'He's already tense there's no point in making him more nervous—'_

Her thought was cut off when Luffy had again stepped on her foot.

"Woops! Sorry about that!"

"I-it's fine. Just try to be careful next time okay?" Nami spoke forcing a grin on her face.

_'Since you aren't exactly light on your feet.'_ She thought with irritation.

"Yeah!" Luffy looked at her with a beam on his face, but as soon as he said it he stepped on her foot for the third time in the last few minutes.

"Eh? I'm sorry! I know how to dance, but I'm not used to this type of dance. It's hard to follow, but it's kind of fun. Shishishi!"

His explanation made him forgot from keeping track of the steps causing him to take another wrong movement and again stepped on the girl's foot.

"Sorry Nami!"

Nami gritted her teeth in annoyance, trying her best not to shout and kick the moron right where it hurts! After all people were watching and it was simply not acceptable for a bride to cease her groom's capacity for reproduction just because he kept on messing up his dance steps.

"Ah sorry!" He apologized once again for stepping on his partner's foot.

She looked at him and plastered the sweetest smile she could muster on her face,

"Don't worry its fine." And right after the words left her mouth, she purposely stomped on Luffy's foot.

"Gyaa!" He winced in pain as her high-heeled shoe pierced his toes.

It might not be acceptable to kick the man between his legs, but that doesn't mean she can't give him a taste of his own stupidity!

"Ah sorry! I think I'm getting clumsy too." She apologized, an apologetic expressing dawning on her face.

"Yeah, I guess…" He agreed, although sweat beads were visible on his face. He was worried that the girl's pointed high-heeled shoes would accidentally prick his foot again.

"Woops sorry! I keep taking wrong steps, this dance is really confusing—"

Another pricking pain on his toes made him stop talking,

"Ouch!" He yelped, accusation visible on his face when he stared at her.

"Oh my! So sorry, I guess your idiocy is affecting me too." Nami spoke, finally losing her temper.

Luffy would normally let such an insult passed, but right now, this woman wasn't particularly on his good side since she was the root of his problems, not to mention that it was because of her that he needed to dance here rather than be off somewhere eating his beloved meat.

"Well, you're no better for pretending to be this idiot's bride and voluntarily marrying this idiot— ouch!"

Nami purposely stepped on her partner foot— again.

They both halted from dancing and tension began to fill the air, which made the music coming from the band playing on the platform seemed so far away. The couple stared fiercely at each other, neither of them refused to backed down and like a silent agreement they began to waltz once more. However, the dance that was supposed to signify their bond and a happy beginning for the couple ended up being a competition on who-can-stomp-the-most-on-your-partners-feet contest.

Luckily for the two, not many people paid attention to their weird behavior because others had joined them on the dance floor.

"Oh my~~ They were so stiff from nervousness a while ago, but now they are eagerly dancing with each other. Their enthusiasm makes this okama so happy~~ Ngahahaha!" Bon-chan said while he spun around like a ballerina a couple of times.

"Bwahahaha! They should be! Unless Luffy wants a one way trip to Kamabakka Kingdom." Garp said, chomping down the meat Luffy gathered for himself just before his grandfather forced him back to the dance floor.

Sengoku closely watched the pair from where he stood,

"Yes, those two are enthusiastic..."_ 'of riding the other of its walking capability.'_ he added silently.

He caught sight of Nami landing a blow on Luffy's toes and the boy wincing in pain while the girl merrily slipped her tongue out in a mocking manner. Luffy immediately retaliated by stomping his foot forward, however, it missed the girl when she stepped backward and the cycle continued.

_'How ironic, just when both didn't care to dance they are more coordinated than ever.' _He turned around, deciding he would need a drink from the bar.

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A Dark Spectator

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From the shadows, a figure sat in a relaxed manner on a branch of a tree. His head leaned on his arms that were in a cross position on the tree's trunk while his legs laid comfortably on the branch.

"It seems Miss Nami has completed the first phase of her job." The man spoke in a low confident timbre, observing the pair on the dance floor.

His gray eyes flickered to one of the inconspicuous waiter moving through the crowd of guest, trying to blend in with its surrounding, but his trained eyes could easily identify that the skin didn't match the body structure of its wearer. Therefore, the thing or creature inside it must have killed a human, skinned that person and wore its skin as a disguise.

"I see some pest roaming around. Now, is it out of desperation or an act of caution?" An amused smirk played across his face and his furry hat casting a shadow on his eyes that had a black rimmed present beneath it.

"Man, that orange kitten sure has it tough." His tone suggested he didn't really care.

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**TBC**

**Thank you for reading :)**

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**A/N: **Okay so I lied, next time I promised to include a hentai err... I mean one talented cook in my story.

So can anyone guess who that dark spectator is? Dark is also a clue just like the other hints I've dropped :p


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Hope people will like this because in all honesty it took everyone ounce of my will power to write and then rewrite and... yup! You guessed it right! To write this chapter all over again and it's no thanks to you my beloved computer who kept crushing on me and spreading her baby viruses to my files. It also didn't help that there were not much LuNa in the series, my muse (meaning LuNa moments) is gone and my source of inspiration is lacking.

So with my return does that mean the updates will be faster? I promise... nothing! I do present you with this long chapter. Enjoy~~~ XD **  
**

**~OoooO~**

**Players of Destiny**

**~OoooO~**

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**Chapter 04 **

**Head Chef Black Leg Sanji &**

**The Groom's Endearing Nickname for His Bride  
**

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The piano combined with the saxophone and cello played by the band produced a pleasant melody which filled the hall, it was mostly drowned by the sound of people chattering and eating. Waiters and waitresses making their way through the crowd to either deliver drinks to their guest or fill the emptying trays of food on the buffet table.

Zoro and the rest had arrived at the reception.

Usopp stopped on his track when he noticed Luffy and the tangerine head swinging and skipping away on the dance floor.

"What do you think those two are doing?" Usopp asked, noticing something wasn't quite right with the way the two moved while they dance.

"Dancing? Can't you tell?" Zoro replied, not paying attention to the couple as he quickly proceeded to the bar once he spotted its location.

Usopp glanced back to his raven haired friend where the pair was still having their stomping contest.

"Erm… Ra-rather than dancing I get the feeling those two are trying to_ hurt_ each other out there." He commented; some sweat beads forming on his head when he felt rather than saw the heated aura coming from the bride and groom.

When he reached the bar, Zoro sat on an abandoned corner, trying to find some peace and quiet. He proceeded to order his alcohol from the bartender, who worked on to produced his beverage.

"Thanks." The swordsman mumbled as he sipped his drink, only to cough it up a second later upon hearing an unpleasant rowdy voice of a woman.

"**Hey Sanji! Where the hell is the rest of my food!_!_?**"

Using his arm, he briskly wiped the dripping alcohol from his mouth, and snapped his head to the far right corner of the hall and stared at the noisy woman in an irritated manner.

The posing flower girl in the wedding, who was now back to her original adult form, called out in a boisterous voice, not caring if the other people around her became offended by her lack of manners.

"Coming my sweet beautiful cherry blossom~~!" A twirling figure with hearts flying off in different direction promptly appeared beside Bonney.

The woman felt an involuntary goose bumps run down her spine at the head chef's referenced on her being.

"Dammit! I told you to stop calling me with those disgusting names!" Bonney did a round house kick and struck Sanji right on the face, causing him to fly a couple of meters into the night sky while she caught all the food he was carrying on her large plate.

She sat and hurriedly resumed her meal.

The moment Sanji painfully descended to the ground, he got up in an instant and kneeled on one knee in front of the pink headed beauty,

"As you wish my love~~!"

His heartfelt proclamation failed to be heard for the woman was too preoccupied with devouring her meal.

"Oohh~ The smell is simply appetizing! Chef-san, I would also like a portion of those dishes on my table." Brook butted in; the musician was seated in the table beside Bonney.

"Shut up bonehead! Get it yourself! My services are only reserved for this beautiful lady." Sanji heatedly replied, before he swiftly gone back to ogling the woman before him.

Interpreting Sanji's insult as permission to enter the kitchen, the musician hurriedly charged through the opening of the large tent beside the reception hall where the makeshift kitchen was located.

"It's hard to believe those two are in a committed relationship with each other…" Usopp warily stared at the couple with Bonney using her elbow to pierced Sanji's ribs when he unintentionally prevented her from eating by trying to hug her.

_'I can only imagine a stormy road ahead of those two.' _

"I don't see what's wrong with it, a dominant gluttonous woman and a submissive slave who can provide her food, it's a perfect match. He's set to be happy his whole life..."

"What a hopeless fool." Zoro muttered, thinking who else would be happy while being treated like a slave, but a fool.

Sanji's ear's twitched whilst his rage escalated, even from a far he had heard the swordsman's statement and was now rushing towards Usopp and Zoro.

"**What was that_?_?**"The cook practically screeched.

"Did you say _glutton_? Let me tell you that my mon chéri only has a _very _healthy appetite therefore— wait… _why_ are you two _here_?" the cook stared in confusion when he saw both his friend and _acquaintance- _

_'yes, that marimo deserves nothing more if not less' _

-present in the party.

"Because we were invited, but you should know that or have all that blood pumping in your head manage to only fill your brain with too much oxygen making you into more of a deficient than you already are." Zoro replied in a patronizing manner.

"Shut up you directionally challenged shit!" Sanji raged.

The cook then turned to faced Usopp.

"What I meant is that you… you both seem healthy and …uninjured." He said as the cook surveyed his friend for any physical injuries.

"Does that mean his grandfather took the news of a _'run away bride' _quite well?" Sanji after taking away his attention from Bonney began to notice the group of people and the jubilant atmosphere.

"Rather, it looks as if nothing out of ordinary happened, even the guests seem unaffected." The cook commented while he scanned the crowd.

"Err… You're right to say _nothing _out of ordinary happened, and at the same time _something_ out of the ordinary definitely happened." Usopp hesitantly answered behind him.

Sanji turned to look at him; puzzlement could be read from his face.

"Can your eyes only focus on degenerate useless stuff? Take a look for yourself." The swordsman raised his beer mug towards the dance floor, anger evident in his last statement.

"Wha?" Sanji glanced at Zoro in annoyance, but he let his gaze traveled to where the swordsman was pointing.

His vision landed on the dance floor, it took him a few moments to spot Luffy through the bodies of people dancing.

His eyes widen in surprised at the sight of his friend,

_'Wha? Luffy? Rather than stuffing his face with food he's dancing a… **waltz**_?_?'_

"Lu-Luffy?" Sanji couldn't stop his mouth from stuttering the question.

"Yep… " Usopp's shoulder slouched in defeat.

"Like I said, you guys got off easily when he's right there dancing or could _that_ be the vice admiral's punishment?" the cook looked back at Usopp.

_'His grandfather's making him dance to delay him from eating?' _

"See what I mean? His eyesight is useless and I thought his radar for women is top of the notch like it's a natural talent for a natural pervert."

The cook lifted his leg in the air and was in the motion of striking Zoro when Usopp quickly grabbed and stopped him.

He pulled Sanji's head to faced Luffy's direction.

"Sanji look again, the wedding didn't get canceled in fact Luffy… … got married!"

The cook made a startled sound which was similar to a cry of outrage and shock when he heard Usopp's statement, and at the same time he saw Luffy holding a girl who was wearing a white gown similar to the wedding dress that was bought and prepared for Luffy's bogus fiancée.

"Look at this joyous atmosphere, do you think people will freely laugh and eat if the wedding got canceled like we planned?" He briefly whispered, letting go of the cook when he have properly processed the information.

"Have you not been paying attention to your surrounding?_?_" Usopp asked his eyes slanting towards Sanji, speculation could be heard from his tone.

"No." was the cook's outright answer.

"Why do I need too, when I'm blessed with beautifully dressed women right before my eyes." Sanji stated proudly, his eyes had gone back to the shape of a heart glancing around at the multiple women in the party until his vision landed on Bonney.

"Moron!" Usopp shouted and slapped the cook on the head, snapping him out of his reverie.

"Will you put your brain back in your head rather than in your pants for a moment, especially when you're supposed to be working." He continued scolding Sanji, while grabbing a cup with visible cream and cheese on top from the tray of a passing waiter.

"Hey! I'm serious at my work you know! Who do you think prepared that soufflé aérien d'œuf cocotte you're eating!" The cook stared pointedly at the appetizer in Usopp's hand, a vein throbbing on his forehead.

"A what_?_? Forget about that! Like Zoro said stop looking at useless stuff and think about the problem at hand!" Usopp replied while he gestured toward another waiter carrying a tray of food and grabbing a few croquettes causing another vein to pop up in the cook's forehead.

Taking a deep breath, Sanji took out his pack of cigarettes from his right packet and lithe up a stick, the smell and feeling of smoking calming him. This was a developed habit of the cook when he needed to relax and think.

"So… Luffy got married." Sanji whispered in an amazed manner after he had calmed.

If he had to be honest, there was a time he seriously thought that his ever so naïve and innocent friend would had continued being asexual for decades, thus missing the blissful experience of young love.

_'I always thought that the only romantic relationship Luffy's willing to build and keep are with his meals.' _The sweet irony almost brought a smile on the Sanji's face.

"And the girl?" He inquired.

Usopp turned the other way and sighed, on the other hand, Zoro remained silent and glared at his drink.

Sanji stared back and forth between the two, a conclusion developing in his brain.

"I cannot believe this!"

"Better believe it Imp!"

"I can't believe this! Don't tell you've gone ahead and kidnap an innocent woman and threaten her just to save your hives!"

Usopp immediate answer was to hit the cook on his head, angry at the ludicrous accusation.

"Of course not!"

"Ah! Is that so?" Sanji wore an apologetic smile while bowing his head to Usopp in a motion of apology.

"Then who is she and what happened?" The cook asked his curiosity showing.

"That's what we want to know too! The girl suddenly appeared on the ceremony wearing the wedding dress…a-and then… those two got married…"

"So let me get this straight, are you saying a stranger pop out of nowhere, claimed the bride's position and without explaining anything, she gone ahead and married Luffy?" Sanji tried to elaborate Usopp's statement.

"That's about sums up what happened." The man with a curly raven hair replied in a defeated manner.

"I see."

"… … …"

"OI! Oi! Oi! Don't lie to me! You may be a master of lies but I'm not that stupid you know?"

"Well-" Zoro begun,

"Don't you dare answer that!" Sanji snapped.

"We're not lying!" Usopp piped in.

"And it's the master of _deception_ not lies!" He added.

"What's the difference?" Sanji couldn't help asking.

"What's the _difference_?" Usopp repeated, his tone suggesting that the answer was obvious.

"The difference is deception sounds much _cooler _than lies!" He seriously stated it like it was a fact.

"… … …"

Both Zoro and Sanji stared at him in deadpanned.

"What?" Usopp unintentionally squeaked, losing his bout of confidence due to their heavy gaze.

"Hey! Don't act like you two don't understand! I don't degrade the names of your _swords_ or the menu you _cook _by changing the words in it, so don't degrade my _title_ by changing the words in it!" He explained in indignation.

Both the cook and the swordsman's cool demeanor began to crack when the logic of the sniper's statement dawned on them.

"See! Words that sounds cooler **do** matter!" He smiled in victory.

The two knew Usopp was right, however, neither was willing to admit that out load.

_'Fine, it does matter, but something just doesn't feel right saying it out loud.' _

"Ahem… well let's continue…" Usopp spoke first breaking the awkward silence.

"Sanji, what I told you a while ago is what actually happened, even now we have no idea who she is or what she wants or what she will gain through all this." Usopp explained; he was currently trying to come up with ideas regarding the girl's intention.

Sanji was silent, also doing the same.

"The wedding…" the cook began, he was finished with his mulling.

"It took placed in a secluded island, the invitations were sent together with the log pose and the island is only accessible if you have a log pose, accidentally finding the place while sailing is possible, but it's still too much of a coincidence of having uninvited people land here at the day of the wedding…"

"Have you guys thought that maybe she is a guest?"

Usopp and Zoro glanced at each other upon hearing Sanji's theory.

"No, she can't be with the way she was acting." Zoro concluded, immediately dismissing the idea.

"How would you know? What do you mean 'with the way she was acting'?" Sanji retorted, annoyed that his theory was instantly dismissed.

"Well she didn't utter a word of complain. If something was wrong she should have said something from the start instead of quietly standing there like everything's perfectly fine." Zoro countered.

"Your argument is irrelevant! It doesn't explain why she couldn't be a guest!"

"If she was a guest then why was she posing as the bride? I've heard her speak, she's not a mute, she could have easily voiced her complain."

"Her meekness could have come from anxiety! The poor girl must have been overwhelmed being mistaken for a bride and dragged to the altar surrounded by high ranking marines, she failed to voiced her complain because she was probably shocked, confused and scared." The cook rationalized the girl's behavior, trying to make the two understand that in such a situation the girl possibly had trouble speaking up.

However, Zoro's adamant to what he felt and observed of the woman during the wedding.

"She wasn't scared; I didn't feel any form of anxiety coming from her. The witch was calm like she knew how everything will play out. I can feel it in my gut."

"Of course, like you're _someone_ who's especially sensitive to woman's feelings." Sanji replied with sarcasm lacing his tone.

He gave up on making Zoro empathized with the girl's circumstances because within their group, if Luffy was asexual, he didn't know what to call Zoro, whom was far worse than Luffy when it came to women.

_'at least Luffy could be drag to Usopp's perverted escapades once in a while.'_

The cook turned to faced the dance floor to specifically observed the bride, the tangerine head was talking to Luffy, her outer feature seemed confident, but Sanji saw a hint of nervousness from her body language. However, like the swordsman stated earlier she is indeed too calm for someone who had a case of mistaken identity… it almost felt like… she's… perfectly satisfied with the whole arrangement...

Sanji's eyes widen with the realization, his earlier assumption was _wrong _and now, he could clearly see that.

It pains to know that with this revelation he must now treat the girl with doubt and caution, definitely not an attitude that a lady deserves from a gentleman,

_'Still I need do it, with Luffy as her target and knowing that rubber moron for so long, he always ends up with this big complicated shit!'_

Another thing that's painfully irksome, in which he belatedly realized, the marimo was right and he would rather eat his treasured hands than ever admit it.

_'Damn. Double shit!' _

The cook's silent musing was broken when a voice spoke up,

"Sanji does have a point."

Usopp who had been content in listening to his two friend's opinion decided to speak up.

"The island's hard to find, maybe she got here using the invitation; the only people Luffy invited were us and almost all the people here were invited by Garp."

"But wouldn't the vice admiral recognized her if he invited her?" the sniper speculated, countering his previous statement.

The three turned to looked at the senior marine,

One person came up to the vice admiral to extend his congratulation towards his married grandchild,

"Why thank you… ah… young tattoo man with your furry hat! Glad that you accepted my invitation and attended!" It was clear that Garp didn't know the guy and had only described his obvious appearance, which was young, a male and he had an abundant of tribal styled tattoos on hands that probably extended up to his arms, which was currently covered by his coat.

The young man seemed unaffected by the old man's awkward greeting and he showed it by tipping his furry hat back and swiftly replied,

"It's my pleasure to be here Mr. Vice Admiral."

After the scene the three face each other again,

"Forget about how uninvited people could get here when the invited guest could be anyone!" Usopp accusingly glanced at Garp, all three had sweatdrops on their forehead.

"It seems that Luffy's grandfather didn't care who attends, as long as many people came." Sanji remembered that the groom had similar trait.

"So what now?" Usopp asked the two.

"Luffy traveled alone with her when they came here." Zoro answered, ordering a refill of his alcohol.

"Ah! You're right! Maybe he heard her side of the story and this could be a simple case of mistaken identity?" Usopp said with a hopeful timbre on his voice.

Although Zoro's heavy silence and Sanji's observant gazed on the married couple told him they thought otherwise.

_'Not that I blame them, even I hear the warning bells going off my radar ever since our plan went wrong.' _He sighed with dark clouds hanging over his head, Usopp bad habit of being pessimistic had resurfaced.

_'Even if I don't want to, with Luffy, I'll be forced to be drag in this mess and when that happen, good bye my peaceful and no-life-threatening days.' _He gave another heavy sighed, with a melancholic expression a singled tear escaped his right eye.

=1=2=3=4=5=6=7=8=9=

**The Bride and Groom **

=1=2=3=4=5=6=7=8=9=

"Hey, don't you think this is enough? We've been going at it for three songs already. I'm sure your grandfather won't mind if we headed to our sits and rest now."

Luffy was too concentrated on his task to hear what had been said, and that specific task was to stomp on his dance partner's foot in which he successfully achieved.

"Ouch! What are you doing?_?_" Out of habit Nami kicked Luffy in the shin, which ended up ineffective due to Luffy's rubber ability.

"Oi! That's cheating, we can only do stomping! We never agreed to kicking unless… it's now allowed." Luffy looked at her excitedly and was ready to land a kick on her when Nami pulled and pinched –hard –his cheek out of anger.

"STOP IT!"

"OUCH!" Luffy yelped when Nami twisted his cheek and felt her fingernails dug into his skin through her net-like silk gloves.

The couples dancing around them glanced in their direction.

Nami hastily attempted to amend the situation,

"Darling~ My legs are tired so let's. Stop. It." She giggled and tried to laugh off their tensed situation, her hand, who abused Luffy's cheek earlier were now lovingly stroking it.

However, Luffy was still annoyed and was pouting with his eyes narrowed while his cheeks were blown up with air like a child.

"Well aren't you cute, pouting like a sulking child just because you still want to keep on dancing." She then used her sweetest smile to the people looking their way, which earned her a beam from them when they thought that the young married couple was flirting with each other.

"Aren't you hungry? Don't you want any _food_?" She testily whispered, knowing that Luffy will instantly forget his grumpy mood at the mention of food. And with that reason, she wasn't surprised when she felt herself yanked across the dance floor towards the buffet table where a cheerful okama was awaiting their return.

"Oohh~~ Strawhat-chan and Fist-chan, you are both so passionate when you were dancing, I could feel your enthusiastic energy all the way here~! It was a lovely sight~~!" the okama skipped and spun around the two like a graceful ballerina to expressed his joy for the success of the first dance.

"Shishishishi! Thanks Bon-chan, I enjoyed the dance and like you said I was enthusiastic to win, and Nami's a tough opponent." Luffy replied before he greedily chomped down a fresh roasted meat he managed to swipe from the tray.

"Awww Strawhat-chan~~! Stop joking around~~!" Bon Kurei loved and treasured his friendship with Luffy, on the other hand, even as a close friend of the Strawhat boy there were times when the things he said was lost on the okama.

"Now follow me you two~~! I shall lead you both to your sits where the food specially prepared for the newlyweds has been served." Bon-chan raised both his hand ballerina style as he tip toed leading the way to their table.

Nami hastily encircled her arms on Luffy's left arm, learning from experience that the guy tended to leave her behind when his head was up in the cloud of food.

The mass of people parted to let the married couple passed through.

"By the way Nami, who won? I forgot to keep tabs on our scores."

Now that Luffy was finally allowed to eat, he was in much better mood and his earlier annoyance of the girl was left forgotten.

"Me." She easily answered a smirk present on her face.

Luffy looked her way with a pout on his face, a little miffed that the woman can easily declared herself as the winner without any explanation.

Taking out the piece of meat he stuffed earlier from the right pocket of his pants he asked,

"How do you know that?"

"Well you proudly stomp on my foot for four times…" she paused and sent a glare on Luffy's way, which he answered with a snicker.

"And I made sure you yelped and winced more than that, so yes, I do know that I won." The smirk was back on her face again.

Luffy shuddered when he remembered how painful her pointed heels felt on his toes, candidly accepting the result of their game he proceeded to pull out a bunch of slice steak from his left pocket that earned a surprised gasped from Nami, because she was standing on his left side.

"Wha! Whe-where did that come from?" she moved a little, making sure any dripping on the steak didn't get on her pure white gown.

"Hmm?" the young man didn't hear her question because he was busy munching on the juicy steaks he brought.

Some of the meat sauce accidentally dripped on her arm.

Nami felt her temper rising, but she holds it off by taking multiple deep breaths.

When she was confident she can talk to him without resorting to violence, she began to reason with him while she pulled out her handkerchief to wiped the drippings,

"Luffy, it will only take a couple more seconds before we get to our table so can't you set your food aside?" Her tone was polite.

"And I don't want to keep clinging to you if you continue on increasing the oil and grease in your hands and arm because it might stain this lovely dress." She finished with a charming smile on her face, expecting her request to be granted.

Luffy glance towards her and blinked,

"Then don't cling."

"… … …"

The young man's simple answer broke her calm and made her blood boil,

"I don't have a choice!" she snapped.

By now everyone was closely watching the couple and Nami felt that abruptly letting go of her groom and shoving and kicking him to a far off distance -which was what she wished to do- would create an unneeded very awkward mood.

So rather than doing what she wanted, she tightened her hold on his arm, she pressed herself closer to her groom because she knew if didn't, she might just delightfully succumbed to her current desire.

Luffy, however, didn't share her sentiments,

_'Huh? Is she dumb? Of course she has a choice.'_

He even tried proving his thoughts,

"What do you mean? Just let go." Luffy tried to wiggle out his arm from Nami's grasp and not to be defeated the orange head clung tighter and moved her body closer if possible, until she felt him stop moving.

When she was about to sigh in relief she heard Luffy's,

"Hmmm…"

The bright head glanced up and saw him studying her.

"What now?" she questioned, suspicion lacing her tone.

"I just realized something."

"Which is?" In her mind she knew not to expect much enlightenment from someone stupid, and yet, she couldn't' stop her heart for dreading his words,

_'I was always careful, there's no way he found anything from me—'_

"For someone who acts violent and cold, you're really touchy." He said with a weird gleam in his eyes.

Her mind went blank and it was her turn to blink,

"What the heck does that mean?_?_"

His words left her brain in panic and confusion, her serene masked began to slip.

Luffy looked away from her to stare ahead, and from his expression she can see he was in deep thoughts,

"You remind me of a friend of mine, who's really touchy when it comes to woman, but unlike you, he's very kind and generous when it comes to the girls he meet-"

"Will you get to the point!" she hissed, reaching the end of her patience.

"Eh? Okay."

He continued to stare at her, then down to the tight hold she had on his arm.

"Well?" She snapped.

"Nami, you're a pervert." Luffy bluntly stated like it was one of those everyday things you _normally_ tell a woman.

"I'm a WHAT?_?_!" the orange head couldn't stop herself from screeching in outrage.

Mistaking Nami's outburst as a sincere question of not hearing his description of her,

"You're a pervert."

He repeated the statement in the same blunt tone he used earlier unknowingly creating another blow to the young maiden's heart.

Bon Kurei, who was way ahead of them, turned back when he heard Nami's screech earlier.

The okama saw Luffy speak,

"Pardon Strawhat-chan, did you say something?"

Nami was still too scandalized to answer the okama's question so it was Luffy who answered it.

"I was telling her she's a pervert."He brazenly declared in that boisterous voice of his for Bon-chan to hear, who was at a distance from them.

The crowd immediately froze when they heard the groom's tactless declaration and the bride could do nothing but gawk at her husband.

_'Th-this guy! Is… Is this his way of getting back at me?_?_!_!_'_ Nami screamed in her mind and at the same time she felt a piece of herself crack in front of everyone.

The bride's earlier effort to prevent discomfiting situations was now ruined -courtesy of her groom- because of the obvious thick atmosphere in the hall.

_'Well at least it cannot get any worse than this!' _

Fortunately those words gave her comfort and courage to stay rather than grabbing her pointed heels and stabbing Luffy multiple times with it before she drop this whole fiasco and run away.

—_ignorance is a bliss_—

Someone used to say and it was true, for Nami didn't know that her newly acquired husband possessed a certain trait, and that special ability is 'surpassing a person's expectation'.

Unfortunately, this was also the day she was about to find out.

"Oi brat! Didn't I drilled you with manners? Can't you see you're embarrassing your wife?" Garp, who happened to be standing nearby, scolded his grandson.

"Lu-Luffy? May I know what made you think that?" Nami asked, trying to sound wounded and hurt.

_'I can still salvage this embarrassing situation. I just need to straighten out the misunderstanding and seriously…'_

_'Why the hell does he think I'm a **pervert**_?_?' _

The intense feeling of outrage came back to her.

Luffy was unaffected by the situation and even took out another steak from his pocket and bit in it before he answered her question,

"I think you're pervert—"

_'Stop repeating it like it some kind of catch phrase you jerk!' _she seethed.

"—because ever since we met you've been really touchy and also you even made me touch you—" The groom's explanation was cut off when a blond man in suit placed his hand on his mouth.

Sanji, who was waiting beside the bride and groom's table, hastily came to Luffy's side and placated the growing tension by stopping his friend from saying something he shouldn't.

"Luffy, that's enough. You know a gentleman never kiss and tell." Sanji advised, and he saw from Luffy's blank expression, it was clear he had no idea what the chef was talking about.

"What I mean is that it's disrespectful, barbaric, insulting and only a piece of trash will share what happened between a man and woman during their most private time." The cook irately explained.

Nami wasn't listening to anything Sanji had said.

Her mind was racing with vulgar scene she had only read in those cheesy romance novels and she was sure as hell _that_ kind of stuff never transpired between them!

_'When? When did those things happened you insane delusional retard!_!_!'_

She was even more enraged when she realized the guy wasn't saying those things to spite her, he really thought she was a pervert!

_'I never thought in my whole I would be planning the assassination of someone who I only met in less than six hours. And what's more unbelievable is that the person I want to kill is my husband!'_

Her hand was twitching, she was itching to grab any pointed items and hurl it right on her groom's face just to make him stop talking.

While the bride was busy with her devious plotting,

Luffy used the time to pry Sanji's hand off his mouth and childishly whined,

"But Sanji, what she did wasn't in private, she did all those stuff in public!"

Multiple gasp could be heard from the crowd that made Nami snapped out of her brooding.

The declaration left Sanji stunned with his mouth hanging open.

Luffy was dense from the reaction of the crowd and continued to speak,

"Like the time she forcefully pulled me in her at the garden."

_'What!_!_! They did it in a garden_?_?'_

Some of the guest paled at the idea, while the rest either accepted or went happily red -mixed it up with a nosebleed- thinking about it.

"Or when she grab my hand only to place it on her breast"

_'Wow! She's bold!'_

"She was also stroking me on the dance floor."

_'Ehhh?_?_? Y-you mean just **now**, when they were dancing she was actually touching his *****'_

The guest couldn't stop their eyesight from shifting to the dance floor. They each remembered the couple's waltz earlier, however, with this new revelation the sweet memory became distorted and only made them cringed.

"And right now-"

"JUST SHUT UP YOU IDIOT!"

It was unknown what the reason was, it could be her rage, adrenalin or luck because Luffy actually flew and seemed to be in a lot of pain when Nami used all her strength to deliver her punch.

Guess she didn't need a pointed object to hurt and make the fool stop talking after all.

Although surprised, the crowd wasn't that shocked with the brides violent outburst. Normally, it was outright wrong for the bride to be physically brutal to her groom especially on their wedding day, however, in this occasion when stuck with a tactless groom, her course of action felt disturbingly right.

As soon as the adrenaline rush was gone, she was forced to faced the effect of her dumb groom's blabber.

Nami was absolutely horrified, she knew the scenario he was talking about, but when she saw the expression on the face of everyone, it told her they were imagining a different kind of scenario… a naughtier, kinkier and perversely twisted setting that was the total opposite of what was supposed to be an innocent gesture on her part.

_'I was **wrong**!_!_! He can make it much worse!'_

When she was about to break down and cry right on that spot, she felt a large warm hand on her shoulder that made her glanced up at its owner.

Garp gripped the bride's shoulder, he gave her one of his rare soft smile in hopes to comfort her.

"Not to worry girl, leave it to me."

Nami genuinely smiled, she felt herself reassured when she heard the old man's words.

"Now you folk listen!" Garp barked, catching everyone's attention.

"Tell me, is there a rule that women aren't allowed to _lust_ after their husband_?_? Of course there's none! And it's also not shameful to do so!"

Somehow, Luffy's grandfather managed to double the awkwardness of the whole thing, and him stating all that with a straight face wasn't helping either.

"So everyone stop acting like it's a big deal, it's not! Can't you see you're embarrassing her? So stop it!" He commanded.

_'Right now, you're the only one embarrassing her! **You** should stop it!'_ The crowd thought in accusation.

"Everything fine now girl, like I told you, leave it to me." Garp turned to her with a huge proud smile, he gave her a thumb-up using his right hand.

_'Nothing is fine! You've made it much **much** worse!'_ She looked at the vice admiral with angry waterfall tears in her eyes.

"And as the grandfather of the groom—"

_'What!_?_? You're still not done embarrassing the poor girl?' _Everyone thought.

"—I must say, it brings me joy that my grandson had found a woman who continuously think of hentai thoughts of Luffy. At least I know they won't be having problems in the bedroom department." He sent a wink to the bride's way.

_'Please… **stop talking**!_!_!'_she shrieked in her mind.

Nami was starting to rethink her idea of punching Luffy earlier was a bad move, she was now entertaining the idea that rather than her groom she should have punched herself,

_'At least I'll be unconscious while this was going on, and if I was lucky I could have woken up the next morning with this whole mess behind me.'_

Her sight caught one of the waiter's carrying a bottle of whiskey with the liquid filling up to three-fourth of the bottle.

_'I don't think I'll survive this night being sober. I already attacked the groom and in my current state of mind, I might just attack the groom's grandfather next.'_

Her decision made, she trailed after the waiter and grabbed hold of the bottle, taking it from his hand she opened it and gulped a ton of the alcohol inside.

_'Fake or not, this is still my wedding day and I have every right to take advantage of the free liquor.'_

"My lady, I don't think it will be a good idea to be intoxicated during your wedding. Let me change that with the special wine prepared for the newlyweds. "

She turned around and was faced with the blond man from before, she also noticed some people edging towards her with the intention of taking the bottle from her hand.

"Fist-chan~~ Spiral-chan is right, a—"

She rudely cut off Bon-chan while Sanji glared nastily at the okama for his supposed 'nickname',

"Trust me, anyone who stands in my way will end up like **that** guy!" She raged, her finger pointed to Luffy, who was still stuck in one of the stone pillars with half his body protruded on the pillar's surface.

Her threat worked like a charm, the group immediately halted on their track.

"Now Bon-chan, lead me to my table and anyone who will try to help my stupid groom will find themselves replacing him on the pillar, got it?"

She took the silenced as a form of affirmation and stalked towards her table with a slightly petrified okama leading the way and beside her was the blond man, who introduced himself as Sanji, the head chef for this evening.

"—so in conclusion, I'm proud that the brat found a pervert wife. It ease my heart to know that my great-grandchild won't be long. Bwahahaha!_!_!"

_'What the_?_? He is still talking_?_!' _The people who were gathered all had sweatdrops on their head.

Today was eventful, however, only three things stuck within the guest mind.

Monkey D. Luffy was a tactless groom,

Monkey D. Nami was a hentai bride,

And according to himself,

Monkey D. Garp was a proud man that day.

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**TBC**

**Well if you got here after that thousands of words, I'm 50% sure you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading :)****  
**

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	5. Chapter 5

******A/N:** Surprised! An update~~ I'm not that confident about this chapter because of a certain cast, hope there's not much OOC, you can freely criticized me if there is, I accept any advices or corrections for the characters. And with that, I present the chapter :D

**~OoooO~**

**Players of Destiny**

**~OoooO~**

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**Chapter 05****  
**

**Introduction of an Ally or a Foe  
**

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A figure stepped out of the hall, her stiletto coming in contact with dried grass. The person climbed on top of a shallow cliff with measured steps, checking for a stable footing now and then.

She breathed in the night air, trying to relax her body and mind as she gazed on the dark-blue ocean ahead, which reflected the starry sapphire sky.

Her tactless groom, after some time, managed to free himself from his earlier predicament. When he came near her, he looked slightly puzzled of the reason for her –aggressive– action earlier that night, and she also noticed he seemed a _tiny_ bit frightened of her. However, none of those things stop him from sitting down beside her at their table and continuously devoured the food that was served.

Afterwards, people constantly came to their table to extend their greetings and congratulations to the couple.

Her musing broke when a multitude of wind blew in her direction.

She took a deep breath, taking in the smell of the ocean.

She knew that during this time, leaving that guy alone could be crucial to someone in her position, he might accidentally slip and reveal that she was an imposter, and that could jeopardize everything.

Still, she needed to get away even for just a few minutes, talking and laughing with strangers together with her husband, who, by the way, also happened to be one, while pretending to be the happy bride was taking a toll on her mental state.

The lies would come out of her mouth and knowing the person whom was sitting beside you knows perfectly well that you are a liar, made it hard for her constantly to endure the pricking sensation of shame and guilt. The people that mostly took a hit on her conscience were meeting Luffy's caretakers named Dandan, Makino and a small village mayor called Woop Slap. After exchanging greetings and some conversation with them, she excused herself and went outside.

"You know Nami-san, a bride shouldn't be alone in a deserted place like this on her wedding day." A silken voice spoke from behind her.

Her muscles tensed but instantaneously loosen when she recognized the voice.

"It hasn't even been a day, and that person is already sending a spy to watch over me?" Nami turned around to look at the woman behind her.

The female with rose-colored hair wore a gentle smile on her face, although the sentiment didn't reach her grim cobalt eyes.

"The master is simply worried about you." The female continued, her black high-heeled boots crushing the grass beneath her when she walked up to stand beside Nami. Her midnight blue tube dress clung to her slim figure and swayed with the wind. She tucked her hair, which only reached past her shoulders, behind her ear.

"You meant worried that I'll fail together with his plan." Nami retorted in a low voice, her tone sounding bitter and her eyes stared fiercely at the ocean.

The woman remained quiet. She seemed contented with watching the waves.

Nami voiced her question when the person beside her continued her silence.

"I'm sure you're not simply sent here to check on my well being so stop delaying and tell me the real reason. _Why_ are you here?"

The woman slid her gaze from the ocean, fixing her eyes on the bride,

"He… the master ordered to deliver this item to you."

Nami felt something hard and cold slipped into her hand and within seconds, her companion was gone.

A faint feminine voice whispered through the darkness, and she almost failed to hear it, if not for the quietness of the night.

…we_ are the same, so I do not wish to lose you my friend… be careful, may it be your husband or him. He has eyes everywhere, and he is wary… that someday you will betray him even if it means at the cost of the one you love…_

Her breath hitched at the warning,

'_Aria…'_

She chewed her lower lip.

'_Sorry… I can't back out now. Things already began so I need to do this until the end.' _

She squeezed her hand together with her mounting determination. The action made her remember the item in her hand that was given to her.

She lifted her fingers from her palm revealing a silver elegant pin in the form of a black rose. A small paper was attached to it with a handwritten message.

_~A wedding present for you my dear. _

_Keep it always with you. ~_

She stared at the object in puzzlement.

'_A present?'_

She examined it carefully and realized what it was.

'_So they gave me a tracker, and I was hoping they forgot when they sent me here with nothing but a luggage full of my clothes.'_

Her memory flash to the time she arrived at the island, before that event, she was in a room with a tall built man she saw for the first time. She was surprised when that person made a door appeared in thin air, and they made her go inside it. As soon as she stepped on the other side of the door, she was stunned to see a forest before her, a place that's only a few minutes' walk from the manor.

'_But why? Why now? Why not give it to me before I arrived here? Unless... there's another purposed to this thing.'_

She once again examined it carefully and no matter how many times she scrutinized the object only a tracker came to her mind.

She frowned, her confusion growing.

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**

**Dinning Hall**

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Sanji was once more with Bonney when one of the apprentice cooks came to him in panic,

"Che-chef_!_! Th-there's a skeleton rampaging through the food in our kitchen!"

At the mention of **'skeleton'**, he instantly knew who it was. His mood darkened with each passing second.

"Excuse me for a minute my princess~~, your knight shall be back."

He then proceeded to stomp towards the tent. Once he stood at the entrance, he grabbed the cloth and pulled it aside to reveal the kitchen.

His breath stopped at the site that greeted him. Spices and sauces were scattered everywhere, starting from the high cabinets and wood containers then down to the tables and finally to the wooden floor.

The delicacies he just finished preparing and had left laid on top of the table for it to cool off, now, each had a hand print revealing that the assailant tasted every piece.

By now, Sanji had become frantic and his breath was wheezing. He clutched his chest to ease the pain he was feeling in his heart. He slowly took a step forward. His eyes began to water, and yet, he refused to let the tears fall.

_'My… my viand… each of them… ruined!_!_!'_ He thought in despair.

Subsequently, he heard noises that halted his mourning. He forced himself to look away from the dreadful sight and gazed at the source of the sound.

His eye sight landed on a very tall and slim figure that was approaching him. The pastry with icing that the _thing_ was merrily stuffing in its mouth made him want to faint... BUT not before ripping out each bone of the skeleton apart and incinerate it in one of his ovens!

'_My God_!_! Is that a piece of the wedding cake?_?_!' _

His irises followed the motion of the skeletal hand when the musician licked off the icing one by one off his bone fingers.

"Oohh~~ Chef-san! I must say, your food is simply to die for. Oh wait, I'm… already…" Brook halted his speech when he felt his afro hair sizzled from the heat.

"YOU!_!_!"

The cook, who was burning with rage, leapt up in the air and proceeded to bend his right knee to the side,

"GET OUT!_!_!"

And with all his strength, he kicked the skeleton's head towards the exit of the tent, which made the musician jetted out of the kitchen and landed on the marbled floor of the reception area.

"Oh my! Are you alright sir?"

Kaya promptly knelt and helped Brook up to stand on his feet.

"Ah~ Mademoiselle, we meet again~~ Your beauty truly is outstanding, which I'm sure the same goes for your underwear. Now that I have properly praised you, may I please see your panty?"

"Erm… I beg your pardon?" Kaya's pale feature possibly got paler. She was quite sure she misheard the gentleman in front of her because she just heard him asked such an inappropriate question.

However, Brook wasn't given a chance to speak again because Usopp, the childhood friend of the Maid of Honor happened to hear him and immediately appeared before him,

"Like hell you will!" the young man yelled, multiple veins popping up on his forehead.

As soon as the sniper finished his threat(?) he smacked his skull or was it kicked? He couldn't really tell because the force caused him to flip three hundred sixty degrees in the air—

'_I really need to eat more and fill my stomach. I'm light as a feather.'_

—which shook his brain and managed to stop it from working for a few seconds.

'…_although, I don't have a stomach. I'm a skeleton. Yohohoho!'_

A joke the musician thought up as he flew through the hall while his body spun around and round. He only halted when his body came crashing to one of the stone pillars, leaving an imprint of his face and body shape on the surfaced as he slowly slid down.

'_Ah… this reminds me of a song that was popular a long time ago. I wonder, is this what the composer actually meant when he composed 'Love Hurts' because it always hurts every time I act upon my love for panties…'_ the panty maniac's melancholic thoughts just before he passed out.

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**The Bride & Groom's Table**

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Luffy sat on the newlywed's table and was currently trying to fit as much food as possible in his mouth.

"I'm in heaven. The food is so delicious, especially the meat!" He was beaming, a blissful expression on his face.

'_No wonder so many people like getting married, not only do you have the unlimited amount of food given to you, but special meat and dessert are served only to the bride and groom! I can't believe Nami's missing this.'_

He merrily grabbed several pork steaks covered in brown sauce and shoved it in his mouth.

The groom was having a great time.

Until...

He started chocking.

A bone from a fish or a chicken or a meat, he didn't know, but he knew that it got stuck down his throat, and he was now having trouble breathing and if the problem didn't get resolved soon he was alarmed that he might pass out.

'_NO! There's still so much to eat, and I'm just warming up!'_ these were the young man's troubled thoughts.

He tried to swallow it, and that's when he felt that the bone had a sharp edge on it, and by forcefully swallowing the bone, it could cut and wound the inside of his throat.

'_This is not good, if I cut my throat, how the heck would I eat?'_ With this problem weighing on his mind, Luffy didn't notice that his body was turning blue from lack of oxygen.

A hand grabbed hold of his throat and yanked the bone, which was a bone from a meat, out of his neck,

'_Eh_?_? It felt like the bone just went through my throat or was it my neck that was split? I'm confused…'_

His puzzlement was forgotten when he realized he could breathe again and turned to his savior,

"Hey, thanks a lot! I almost passed out, which would have been bad. I could have missed all the yummy stuff!"

His savior –a man who wore a furry white hat underneath it was a mass of dark hair– stared at him with unfathomable expression,

"I believe a person dying in this type of occasion for the reason his pharynx was clogged by a piece of a cow's lumbar vertebrae would have been _bad_."

Luffy pursed his lips to indicate he was thinking about what the man had said,

"Hmm… I don't think that's right. I'll be honest. You lost me with the rest of pharins stuff, but if a person died right now, it would not be bad, it would be horrible. The celebration would have been ruined."

He made hand gestures and explained it in a tone like he was talking to a child.

"... ... ..."

When the person remained silent, Luffy continued speaking,

"Hey, since you helped me. Why don't you sit down, there's a lot of food I'll give you some." He grinned, looking up at the man.

The raven haired offered a red cushioned chair decorated with ruffles, laces and roses designed specifically for the brides sit.

The stranger languidly settled his gaze on the chair,

"Your generosity is touching. I'm sure the wife will love that trait of yours, but I prefer to stand."

To prove his statement, he leaned his weight on one foot and casually crossed his arms on his chest. He indeed looked comfortable in his position.

"Besides, I'm only here to deliver a gift."

"Oh then you should ask Bon-can. He knows where the gifts are placed. I was told that rather than receiving the gifts at random times during the night and a chance of losing it, they set aside a spot where the gifts are placed, and it will be delivered to my home when the celebration is over."

Luffy surveyed the hall, looking for the okama.

"No, this needs to be delivered in person, which is why I'm here." He then tucked two of his finger inside the pocket of his navy blue coat and revealed a small rectangular box covered in a glossy black wrapping paper, and a simple gold ribbon was tied on it.

The man impassively presented the gift in front of the groom.

"Here you go. Don't lose it."

Luffy heard his tone to be casual, but he could pick up the underlying warning in the man's words.

_Don't lose it._

His hand reached out and took the gift. He turned it over and under and even shook it near his ear to get a clue in what might be inside the wrapped package.

His curiosity of discovering what kind of item lay inside the small flat box heightened, and he started to tear the wrapping paper. However, a hand swiftly seized his wrist and pulled his hand away.

"I strongly suggest that you keep it for now and open it later."

The stranger had a composed grin on his face that contradicted the stern glint he saw in those gray eyes that made him heed the guy's advice.

'_I don't feel any malice from him so the gift shouldn't be dangerous.'_ The groom stared at the black package on his left hand while the man let go of his right hand.

'_I guess he's just really shy about his gift, even wanting to deliver it personally.'_

"So can I get a hint on what this is?" Luffy spoke, placing the gift on top of his head and covering it with his straw hat.

"I believe it's a key."

"A key?" He asked, blinking in confusion.

"For what?" He questioned further, he showed signs of interest and mild excitement on his face.

'_Could it be? It's a key to treasure box full of rare meat!'_

The man grinned in a devious manner, and amusement could be heard from his voice.

"I will let you find the answer to that."

His reply seemed to satisfy Luffy because his eyes glowed with enthusiasm. The groom appeared to be having a blissful dream and drops of saliva came from his mouth.

"Oh and one more thing..."

The stranger nonchalantly reached behind the opening of his front coat and instantaneously stabbed Luffy's hand with a thick needle of a syringed that caused the young man to yelp, and thus, ending his daydream.

Luffy stared with absolute disbelief on his face. His tongue hissed like a snake out of his mouth when he yelled his question,

"Why did you do that_?_?" He complained. His other hand cradled his injured one.

His savior merely gave a canny smile in response and simply stated,

"Because you only have value to me when you're alive and that's _my_ present."

"_What?_?_?_ Your gift was to stab me with a needle? And I thought the box hidden on top of my head was your gift."

"No, it's not."

He waited, but the man offered no further explanation beyond the fact that the black box sitting on Luffy's head wasn't a gift from him.

Luffy's eyes slowly slanted towards the man and dawned on a lazy look,

'_Why do I feel like I'm attracting crazy people today?' _

His mind conjured up an image of Nami, what woman in her right mind would crash a wedding and marries a stranger if she's not crazy? And then there's this guy, who was standing in front of him, only an insane person would randomly stab someone in order to keep that person alive as a given reason.

"Well I don't know where you got the idea that I'm dying..."

"But I plan to stay alive." He paused, looking straight to the stranger's eyes.

"For a_ long _time." He emphasized. He wanted his point to get across.

He recalled that the first topic of conversation he had with the guy was about someone dying and now their topic was again brought back to death.

'_I hope that's good enough for an insane person obsessed with deaths to understand that I'm not dying.' _

His dreams of meat and dealing with crazy people made him craved for food, he picked up multiple steak on a plate laid before him and resumed eating.

"That's nice." The stranger replied while he slipped his hand inside his coat and hanged the syringed back on its hiding spot.

"Nevertheless, I always like to take secondary precaution." He continued, his full attention going back to the groom once the syringed was safely secured.

"... ... ..."

Feeling his senses tingling, Luffy glanced away from his food and saw his saviors penetrating gazed settled on him.

"Huh? Oh! Sorry, did you say something? I wasn't listening to you anymore. I was eating." He bluntly stated like his reason was enough to excuse his rudeness.

"... ... ..."

The man's face remained stoic, although, his eyes appeared to have narrowed a bit and some beads of sweat could be seen on his forehead.

"And since you helped me earlier I'm not mad." Luffy explained while he tried to keep the large amount of food he swallowed from spilling out by using both his hands to cover his mouth.

"Just don't do it again. Okay." He managed to give him a full grin despite his mouth filled of food.

"I don't plan to." The guy readily answered, not at all affected by Luffy's lacked of manners.

'_Unless something else comes up.' _The man thought, and he swiftly let his gaze traveled to the person approaching them.

"Luffy, who are you talking to?"

The groom turned and saw the bride approaching their table.

"This is... oh yeah, what's your name?" Luffy turned his curious gazed upon the stranger.

"Just call me Trafalgar." The stranger's eyesight never left the bride when he spotted her.

"Okay, this is Truffle Guy."

Nami visibly smirked at his introduction while Trafalgar as usual appeared unaffected.

"By the way, I'm…"

"Mr. Monkey D. Luffy & Miss Nami."

"Oh. How do you know?"

He broke his eye contact with the bride and faced the groom.

"A good guess. The bride and groom's name were sprawled on posters, pastries and cards scattered all over the place. And I _guess_ that you must be the bride and groom."

"Right." Nami muttered, her tone laced with sarcasm.

"Yeah... Gramps overdid it with those stuff..." He appeared disheartened for a second and then recovered immediately by turning back his full attention to the feast on the table and gladly continued eating.

Nami narrowed her eyes on the man and heatedly whispered to him,

"Law, why are _you_ here?"

Trafalgar gave a devious smile to her,

"Since I'm considered a guest, obviously I'm here to join the celebration of the bond of two people becoming one."

His smile widening into a smirk,

"And from the commotion earlier, I heard the bride can't wait to practice in _literal_ the becoming one part." He finished in a smug tone.

Nami gasped, the shocked and embarrassment prevented her from forming a proper retort to the…

'_Goateed jerk ass!'__ she _thought in dislike.

"Well, it was a pleasure." He casually bowed his head to the two, then straightened up and turned away from the table.

"_Best of luck _to both of you." He waved his two fingers in the air like a saluting gesture as he walked away.

Nami glared at his back the whole time.

Luffy smiled and waved a good-bye to his new... acquaintance?... Friend? or... ?

"So you finally got it out huh?" The raven haired stated when Trafalgar was out of their sight.

"What do you mean?" The girl's ire diminished when she heard Luffy's inquiry.

"Well you were gone a long time, so I thought you were having trouble pooping out your poop."

And in a matter of milliseconds her ire was back again, only this time it was doubled and was quickly escalating to rage.

She hurriedly checked her surrounding and noted that none of the guests were near enough to hear what was said.

Base on experience she knew if she didn't shut the guy up this could lead to another embarrassing event of her life. And with that decision in mind, she took the course of action that would prevent it.

She picked up one of the small pieces of meat delicacies and with flat out no effort of gentleness, she stuffed it in his mouth.

"_Honey_~~ just stop talking and eat, or I swear I'll nail you back into that pillar!" She spoke in a sweet voice, and a charming smile adorned her face, but the dangerously wicked light in her eyes clearly implied that she intended to carry out her threat.

Luffy gulped down the meat she just gave him and cautiously nodded his head. He slowly turned back to his meal and grabbed a handful of food that he speedily put inside his mouth.

His wary eyes did glance towards her every now and then.

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**

**The Wilderness**

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Trafalgar Law traversed the forest beyond the reception hall. He was satisfied that the first phased of the plan had gone smoothly,

"Well Ms. Cat Thief, I underestimated you. I thought you were only interested in stealing gold and jewelries, but it seems you expanded your horizon by your latest conquest, stealing the identity of the bride." A smirk played on his lips.

**=1=2=3=4=5=6=7=8=9=**

**TBC****  
**

**To those who are interested I'll give a hint: Nami and Law met each other through the person ****they are working under and simultaneously, they're not. Clear? Great!**

**Your feedbacks are appreciated~~**

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**Disclaimer Notice****: **Aria Yakushi does not belong to me and was created by Oxenstierna D. Yuki-Rin's imaginative mind. She generously volunteered her OC from One Piece: Parallel Works. Remember Yuki-Rin-san, you've volunteered this beauty for me to use, she's in my story now and I can do whatever I want with her. kekekeke!

**A/N:** Thank you so much for reading my story :D


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